Isola

by Allegra Goodman

She sighed. “Why do men like him do anything? Because they can.”

Then Auguste said what I would remember later. “If we are together, we will have nothing to fear.”

Filling these packets and wood boxes, I felt a joy I had not known before. It was not love, and it was not comfort, nor was it mastery or beauty, but it was usefulness.

And I felt God’s presence as I had never done in grief and anger; I knew it in my insignificance.

“Those who know their faults are truly wise,” the Queen said. “And those who have endured the worst have most to teach. Do not say, then, that your story does not deserve retelling. Tell me, rather, how I might reward you for offering what you have learned.”