The Names

by Florence Knapp

But what disturbs her more is that she must now pour the goodness of her son into its mold, hoping he’ll be strong enough to find his own shape within it. Because Gordon is a name passed down through the men in her husband’s family,

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

She lives trying not to set a match to Gordon’s anger, but still she spills petrol about her,

She races from thing to thing, tending to whatever might spark, but it’s always something behind her, just out of sight that she hadn’t thought of.

It makes her think sex is probably something her father does to her mother.

Her mother lives in a warm house and is bought clothes to wear, but she has no more money or freedom than the woman who pushes a shopping trolley of scavenged treasures around town.

maleficent. A word so close to magnificent, she thinks, sent off-course by maleness.

she once said about contempt being the most corrosive thing in a relationship,

when the quietest person, most reserved in their opinions, most reluctant to impose their thoughts on others, finally speaks; you hear.