I Who Have Never Known Men

by Jacqueline Harpman

Imagine how fast my imagination had to work to prevent me from knowing what would happen so that I’d be caught unawares!

I don’t think I’m forty yet; with no seasons, we can’t keep track of time.

When Alice, whom they’d forced to eat, tried to strangle herself with her dress twisted into a rope, Claudia had relented and rushed to undo the knot and halt the appalling threat of death, always promised, never given.