Hungerstone

by Kat Dunn

To be a woman is a horror I can little comprehend.

This was my induction into a motherless world, alone and met with fear and horror.

All I had was myself, and the weight of that burden was almost more than I could bear.

I am jealous of Cora’s passion and carelessness, but most of all I am jealous that she can experience all these things at an age when I held myself under such rigid control, when I was a creature made only from fear and survival. I am jealous that anybody has the gift of growing up differently.