Because not all stories start with “once upon a time”…
Once upon a time, Little Girl learnt about life as little girls do: with a lot of dreams and cherries.
Little Girl would become a princess, and, with whoever would be her Prince Charming, make another little girl. However, to get, we must first give. A lot!
When she is ready and when she is deemed enough (between the ages of five and sixteen), Little Girl will give. Women before her gave, and women, before they were born, gave too; women after her will give. I wonder though if she is ready and if she is truly enough. Are you worthy to suffer Little Girl?
Once upon a time, Little Girls were led into a hut with a sad stool. Blood danced to the rhythm of strange music, songs sung in a language that does not know them well, a knife that understands little girls more than their mothers and credence and women. Not one girl, but many… you, me and us.
Little Girl lay down, but she laid down a little girl. So the women from the generation before her, the ones she has been entrusted with, held her little legs open, her hands pinned down, her head pinned; they muffled her power with the body of a woman because when giving, women must give quietly.
To get we must first give. When we give, we give quietly, and so must Little Girl.
Before language knew her, Little Girl understood healing, and gruesome pain and giving in the order that she had to. Little Girl was never to talk about that hut or those women or that shocking part of her mother or aunt or neighbour. She learnt silence because the women from her tribe are dedicated to giving…because to get we must first give, when we give, we give quietly.
Once upon a time, Little Girl was heavy with child. No cherries or bloom or dream topped the cake that was her stomach.
The neighbours say that she was due in seven moons. She would hum songs of a passing. The seventh moon did not hear the cries of a baby or the joy of a giver. Instead, she hums songs of a passage, the last passage, a sad song.
To get, we must first give. When we give, we give quietly. When we give, we give everything.