Everything My Mother Taught Me

by Alice Hoffman

When men were interested, they had a faraway look, as if they were trying to figure out their attraction. 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

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 felt a sort of joy I’d never felt before. I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.

She was pretty, but you had to search for her beauty, which was hidden in her kind eyes.

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