Barely a sinew

[breathedout]

"Mum." Gael held the robe, blood side up. "Earth to Mum."

Sive pressed her fingers tremblingly to her temples and steadied her hand. Then breathed out slowly and paused the record. "What... love?"

"I'm throwing this out." Gael hopped off the cardboard box she'd been perched on. "Safe to assume you've no housewifey tricks to clean it?"

Sive looked directly at the blood but her gray eyes misted over. "Do you... need anything?"

"If by 'anything' you mean tampons, advice, huge, painkillers, a pep talk, a hot chocolate... I've got myself covered, thanks. But I will take a fifty-euro guilt payment."

Sive's eyes refocused and she said, "Will you take it in monthly installments?" Gael gave her a withering look and her mother's smile broke the surface. "And in a year or two," Sive said, "when the novelty wears off, I'll take you to Family Planning for the pill. Had it been available when I was young... I wouldn't have bothered with a single wretched period. You can skip them without consequence, the science says. So far... Not that we're informed. Barely a sinew holds a woman's body to her will, Gael. See it doesn't snap."

—Caoilinn Hughes, The Orchid and the Wasp