"I'm sure she wasn't herself at all, and for the first time ever I was completely confounded by what Miss Stacy was saying," Anne said as us girls handed out newspapers.
I wasn't part of the school newspaper, but I'd help out every once and awhile just to spend more time with my friends.
"What did she mean by steps to conceiving!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Perhaps it has to do with being escorted home," Tillie suggested.
"But there's no touching," Diana said.
"Unless there's rough ground," Jane joked.
"So it's like... animal husbandry?" Tillie said, trying to figure out how conceiving worked.
"That's disgusting, we're not filthy animals," Josie said.
They continued to list ideas, and I got more and more nervous with each sentence.
"There must be someone who can answer all this," Diana said.
Just as she did, Gil exited the church.
"Can I help you?" He said as we shoved Anne towards him. I should've asked, but it was sort of fun to torture her like this.
"Is it true that women of intelligence and passio- emotion are.. doomed to be... infertile? Is that how reproduction... works," Anne said, sighing.
"I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that so... no?" He answered.
"Is that all?" He asked after a moment.
"The steps," Tillie whispered.
Anne said nothing, so he left, waving to me and sighing.
"He said seen, what has he seen?" Ruby said, panicked.
"Enough! We need to purge ourselves of these nonsensical lies! And I know a way, and it's on your book on Scotland, Diana," Anne said, smiling.
We all listened.
"Tonight, we'll all meet in the meadow just past the lake of shining waters. Be there," she said, and we all nodded.
What a fun night it would be.
—————
We all held onto the stick, lighting the fire. I gasped as the whole thing set ablaze, and we all stepped back, chanting out.
"Goddess of Beltane, Sacred Mother, Queen of May," Anne began, "wild lady of the woods, guardian of love and life, welcome to our circle."
We all recited in unison.
"We women, powerful and sacred, declare upon this hallowed night..." we said.
"That our heavenly bodies belong solely to us," I said, smiling.
"We shall choose whom to love and with whom to share trust," Diana continued.
"We shall walk upon this earth with grace and respect," Josie said.
"We'll always take pride in our great intellect," Jane smiled.
"We'll honor our emotions so our spirits may soar!" Ruby exclaimed.
"And should any man belittle us," Tillie began,
"We'll show him the door!"
"Our spirits are unbreakable, our imaginations free!" Anne said.
"Walk with us goddess, so blessed are we!"
We all threw our papers into the fire, laughing, smiling, and dancing around the fire as we waved our ribbon sticks.
YOU ARE READING
Motorbike
FanfictionI'd seen that face a million times. She was not merely seeing, she was observing. She was questioning me, interrogating my thoughts with her beautiful eyes. "What would you like me to call it, Muriel? Love?" I asked. "Would you be telling a lie?" Sh...
