Expectation

by Anna Hope

‘You must keep hold of your friendships, Lissa. The women. They’re the only thing that will save you in the end.’

All these boys. All these mothers. All that grief. And here, no apology for any of it. It would be nice if somewhere, even on a tiny little plaque, it read: Sorry. We got it wrong. All that colonialism and empire and slaying our children. All that God. Lands grabbed. Resources plundered. Patriarchy upheld. Church and military hand in hand. Who’s a little soldier then?

Her wants proliferate, metastasize in the darkness inside her.

‘You know how it is.’ Cate shrugs. ‘Young people become older people. They’ll compromise. That’s what we do. We stop fighting. We capitulate. We become part of the problem.’