"In her solitude, she discovered something odd. She had envied men their long-legged freedom to roam the world and return full of glory to wives who only waited. She knew about history-makers and the home-makers, the great division that made life possible. Without rejecting it, she had simply hoped to take on the freedoms that belonged to the other side. What if she traveled the world and the seven seas like a hero? Would she find something different or the old things in different disguises?
She found that the whole world could be contained in one place because that place was herself. Nothing had prepared her for this."
"When no one was left she would have to confront herself. Leaving home left nothing behind. It came too, all of it, and waited in the dark. She realized that the only war worth fighting was the one that raged within; the rest were all diversions. In this small space, her hunting miles, she was going to bring herself home. Home was not a place for the faint-hearted; only the very brave could live with themselves."
She found that the whole world could be contained in one place because that place was herself. Nothing had prepared her for this."
"When no one was left she would have to confront herself. Leaving home left nothing behind. It came too, all of it, and waited in the dark. She realized that the only war worth fighting was the one that raged within; the rest were all diversions. In this small space, her hunting miles, she was going to bring herself home. Home was not a place for the faint-hearted; only the very brave could live with themselves."
"Orion slowly grew cold. It takes some time for the body to stop playing house."
"...and she was lonely, not for a friend but for a time that had not been violated."
~ Orion - from The World and Other Places: Stories, by Jeanette Winterson
~ Orion - from The World and Other Places: Stories, by Jeanette Winterson
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