Everything My Mother Taught Me

by Alice Hoffman

Was it a dream, or was it real? Did they want a woman, body and soul, or was it only the body that appealed to them?

You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you’d have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.

“I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.”

“She would have to do away with herself in order to have a life of her own.”