What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

by Lesley Nneka Arimah

What I hadn’t expected were the boys who ran behind her during recess and lifted up her skirt, as though my actions had given them permission, as though because they had seen her bare breast they were entitled to the rest. It was a boyish expectation most would not outgrow even after they became men. At first Anita yelled and pulled her skirt down and chased the offenders, but soon something cracked and though she cried, she no longer tried to stop them. This earned her the reputation of being easy, which would haunt her long past girlhood.

This spared your mother the embarrassing last resort of offering a blow job to convince the lawyer to take your case. (It also relieved you of extending one yourself, discreetly of course—and only after you’d turned thirteen—when your mother excused herself on a false trip to the bathroom.)

I beg your pardon?????????

WHO WILL GREET YOU AT HOME

What a strange story

There was only so much a mother could ask a daughter to bear before that bond became bondage.

“If you can’t please the gods, trick them.”

Girls with fire in their bellies will be forced to drink from a well of correction till the flames die out.