Maeve Fly

by C.J. Leede

You can get away with any name these days. All these children are Paxton and Austynn and Braydyn and Braydee. These will be the names of children’s parents and grandparents. These names will be written in history books.

GOT MY PSL WITH MY GIRLS, OFFICIALLY CHRISTIAN GIRL FALL!

“I mean, everyone says New Yorkers are assholes. And like, it’s true. Kind of. But the real thing about New York is that everyone is so crammed together, is so busy, that the city operates like this one huge organism. You have to be efficient ordering your bagel and know what you want before you get to the counter because if you don’t then you hold someone else up. You have to walk fast on the street for the same reason. You can’t disrupt the flow. It’s respect for community, you know, the whole. But here…” He waves his large hand. “Everything is so spread out. There’s no city center, just like a bunch of neighborhoods, and no one gives a shit about anyone else. This city is like the epitome of the individual. Land of the fucking selfish.

The piña colada is, in my opinion, the perfect beverage. Cold, sweet, and orgasmically artificial.

This is not a place for wolves. Ours is a world of sheep who believe themselves to be something greater.

I have never understood, and still do not understand the notion that a woman must first endure a victimhood of some sort—abandonment, abuse, oppression of the patriarchy—to be monstrous. Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason. But why would she do it? Why, why, why?

Of course we know and understand the roles outlined in Western folk stories and cartoon movie narratives for girls and women: princess protagonist, matronly helper, young competitor antagonist (in the case of stepsisters), and villainess. We do not, collectively, have a stomach for the idea of a young beautiful creature to be anything but good. We do not completely believe her capable of it. If you possess both youth and beauty, you can get away with much in this world. You can get away with anything. We all know the types.