Broadway Butterfly

by Sara DiVello

The necessity to arrive earlier, stay later, and work twice as hard (and get paid half as much), simply for the privilege to be allowed to be there, trailed her like a constant shadow.

Facts were facts. But the storyteller steered the narrative and the narrative steered public perception. It was an invisible power.

Everyone, Julia had learned, found a way to paint themselves as the heroes in their own stories.

Leave it to a man to think he should decide a woman’s identity, instead of honoring her as she’d wished to be known.

Wherever there were gobs of money, there would also be powerful people who wanted secrets to stay buried.

But spinsters were unencumbered by foolish husbands who dragged them into the fiery clutches of hell.

the essence of human spirit is resilience.

The women, as always, would pay the price.