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Short Story

Gravity

A short story by Mairi Wilson.

She was nine years old when she came of age, which is too soon for anyone to realise that they are alone, and that the entirety of their universe is contained within their skull, without connection to the universes of others. She found the knowledge a heavy burden. Her mother was mad, whatever that might mean – it might just mean tragic – and no-one cared for her. She felt that her soul had been lost somewhere, or perhaps she’d never had one, after all, how does one acquire a soul? She surmised it had to be given, first, seed-like in a name and then as a beloved You, and she had known neither. She felt cold and she was in relentless pain from her experience of nothingness.

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