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Edited on Fri Oct-26-07 12:24 PM by BlueIris
"The Emporer's Second Wife"
I light the extra room and stay there nights when I’m not called. I curl in the empty quilt and know she’s with him. I pull the blankets tight
and hope I won't remember how she goes to him in nothing, original and dank, denying little. She understands his need; she knows
I'm filling in the nights she's unwilling. She knows I’m twelve years old and only starting. But I’m the one whose sleep is shallow, spilling
into day. He's everything to me but lover. He tells me, if we don't make love, it's right. It's best my spirit stay intact, all over.
No one else must know. They think the two of us are fucking all the time we're here. But we just talk. The rustling girls who do
my nails are scared for me. They think I'll swell before the winter. But in the chamber’s privacy he only wants to hold me, kiss me, touch and tell
me I am gracious. He won't do violation —that's what he calls it—so we lie beside each other, tumid with desire and the patience
of two statues. It's wrong, he says. You're young. You should be learning grammar. I cover my face when he says these things. I ache. I've just begun
to see the error. He think girls happen slower, that as long as we're unopened, we're immune to breaking. He imagines I'm intact all over.
That lady must go. When I learn magic, I'll erase her, have her put away for stealing. But she doesn’t hate me back. She brings elastic
ribbons, ties my hair in twists. She comes with plates and pastries. She gives me stockings, pins, and slips, and asks me if our husband's won
me over. I tell her he is all a girl could want, and more. She snickers when I say it, then agrees. In recent months, our emporer's revealed
another side. He can't be still. She likes my work. It's clear she thinks I do the service. We talk about his mouth, his hands, his eyes
and feet. She says, when I'm a few years older I'll be deadly. She thinks I never cry, that I'm serene, divine, immune. Intact, all over.
—Adrienne Su
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