The Names

by Florence Knapp

Cora wants to say it matters because sometimes big men feel small inside.

Because sometimes their need to please previous generations is greater than their need to love future ones.

She knows this will be a defining moment in Maia’s life, a moment when she was given a voice and wasn’t asked to fit into the shadow of her parents’ marriage.

Cora was an equal impediment—something to be protected and worried over. Just as Gordon was a presence to be minded and feared.

And Cora realizes her daughter has learned what to do. How to soothe, to placate. That just through watching, the first time she’s stepped into this role, she is already accomplished. If it doesn’t stop, Cora thinks, this pattern will repeat unendingly, the destiny of each generation set on the same course.