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I would die a woman, and I would not be used or abused to satisfy some man Yes, there was a part of me that wanted to be like Belinda, but that was the part men planted in me, the part I could subdue
Call eneral Call ht
But in the end, they will call me with respect, and really, in the end, what mattered more, respect or love? No one really knehat love was How ical bond?
The choice was siht: be a dreamer or be a realist and make the day conform to what I wanted and not what I hoped
Belinda danced and my father smiled My mother fled from pain and darkness, and I, I stood behind the disaster away from our doorstep In the end they would all appreciate me
And ould anyone want more than that?
The tinkle of Belinda's laughter fell along the dark corridors ofabsolutely sure
1
Cries in the Night
At first I thought I was drea, for when I
woke and openedbut the lohistle of the wind blowing up froh low Myshutters banged against the clapboard and then, I heard the sound again, this ti like a steadily growing drumbeat in anticipation of some important announcement or event After a moment I heard it once more
It sounded like a cat in heat, but we had no cats Daddy hated pets, finding theation than a pleasure The only ani-eye dog, and he had no need for either Our house was far enough away from the don Provincetown area and surrounded by walls ten feet high with an entrance gate Daddy had Jeroht Daddy also kept his shotgun under the bed, "just in case" It was, he said, a lot cheaper than feeding sorel, and that, he concluded, "was the bottom line"
This time the sound was even louder I sat up so quickly sos under ination or froh the wall between my room and Belinda's It wasn't a howl, e
xactly, nor was it a screech There was so starkly unusual It was certainly not a noise Belinda wouldfrom her bedroom
I stepped off my bed, scooped up my robe from the chair beside my bed, and shoved my arms into the sleeves as I left my room Daddy and Mother had already coown and Daddy was in his pajamas The dreadful sound continued