Blackout

by Erin Flanagan

AA was established by a bunch of white men.” Maris snorted, then laughed. They pulled up in front of Janice’s apartment building, and Maris was amused to see she was also dressed in all black, all except the white cast on her foot. “You’re right. Why should I let those men tell me what to do?”

“Your work is irrelevant,” Hollis said to Maris. “It’s only words. There’s no discovery or change. You just make up these complaints about people you don’t even know, but you have no real power to change anything. Your work doesn’t do anything.”

She’d tried AA for a few months, but Eula was right: it was another group of men telling her what to do.