After quickly hugging my mother, we help Holly’s husband by rinsing his wound with alcohol and suturing him up with a needle and thread. It isn’t much, but it’ll have to do. No important organs were hit in the attack, so he should survive. As we bandage him up, Holly approaches and holds his hand. I’m glad she’s happy he survived, and that we didn’t have to deal with another loss.
The kids slowly get up too, watching the adults hug each other. Only Noah stands there in the middle of the room as though he’s stunned we all made it out alive. He defended us all from my father, but ultimately, it was my mother who killed him. She saved us, and I can’t thank her enough.
So I hug her again and say, “Thank you. I know it must’ve been hard.”
She shakes her head. “Actually, it wasn’t. I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time, but I could never find the right weapon.”
I snigger. “Poison wasn’t enough, huh?”
“The fucker just wouldn’t die,” she says with a grimace, making me laugh.
“Well, he’s dead now.” Noah leans back, and says, “We should celebrate.”
Marsha nods. “We should. The entire community banded together to fight against their oppressors. You did that, Natalie.” She squeezes my arm. “I’m so proud of you.”
A tear forms in my eye, but I quickly push it away. “I’m proud of us all. I couldn’t have done this without you or any of the other women.” I look at Holly who’s helped her husband get up, and she nods at me too in recognition.
“One simple act of defiance is all it takes to start a revolution,” my mother says, and she fishes something from her pocket. It’s my old scarf, and she hands it to me. “Everything we did, all of it led to this moment.”
I take the scarf and clutch it tightly before wrapping it around my neck. For the first time, I can say I’m proud to belong to this community … this community of women who prevail.
And I gaze at Noah who looks at me with delight in his eyes, and it moves me. I hand my baby to my mother who sweetly coos at the child while I walk up to my husband and grab his hand. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
He looks down at his feet. “I didn’t do much.”
“Yes, you did. You brought me outside the community when I was just a little girl, only to bring me back years later … It was all to achieve this. To overthrow the patriarchs.”
His face darkens. “I’m a patriarch too, Natalie.”
He swallows as tension rises, and when I glance over my shoulder at all the women and children staring us down, I know what he means; no one wants a patriarch anymore.
“My time has come,” he says.
“No,” I say, squeezing his hand. “This was your idea. I’m not doing this without you.”
“You already did,” he says. “You and your mother conspired against the patriarchs … and you won. I’m the only one left standing. If we go outside now … the people remaining will butcher me.”
“I won’t allow it,” I say, frowning. “They will understand. They must.”
A hand on my shoulder makes me turn around. My mother smiles. “They will … if you explain it to them.”
I nod. “All right.”
Noah’s nostrils flare as he sucks in a breath. “I’m ready.”
We grab each other’s hand and step over my father’s body, opening the door. The last inch of the sun is still visible on the horizon, casting a shadow over all the huts in the vicinity … and the hundreds of male bodies lying scattered across the grass.
Women stand over them with hatchets and knives and poison bottles in their hands, and I swallow hard. They stop what they’re doing and look at us emerging from the hut.
Everyone stares at us, and I can’t help but wonder if they’re waiting for me to say something. But what?
Suddenly, there’s a weird noise behind me, but I don’t have time to look. Because within seconds, my mother has dragged my father’s body to the door and throws him outside onto the grass.
“It’s done. This community is ours now,” she growls out at the crowd.
One second. Two seconds. Three.
All the women and leftover men burst out into cheers.
I’m flabbergasted, completely stunned, and my jaw even drops at their excitement.
Were there so many people who wanted this system to end? So many people who were on the verge of breaking, so many women who desperately sought an exit but never got one … and now that the opportunity presented itself, they took it gleefully. All the women fought their suppressors until there was no one left to try to subdue them. Most of the elders, gone. Everyone with weapons, gone. All the guards … dead. And the patriarchal bodies lie stacked up inside the temple, thanks to the cunning deviance of the matriarchs and their poison vials.
It’s as if it was always supposed to be.
And I can’t help but raise my hand and incite the cheering crowd even more. “We did it, we won!”
“But what about him?” someone suddenly yells, pointing at Noah.
The entire crowd is silenced by that one question.
I knew it would be asked. It had to be coming; it was only a matter of time before they noticed.
“He’s a patriarch,” another one growls, clutching his pitchfork close to his heart. “None of them deserved the temple or the lavish lifestyle.”
I lift a finger. “You’re right. And they deserved all the punishment they got,” I say. “BUT …” Everyone’s looking at me with suspicion now. “This patriarch was the one who came up with this entire plan.”
“What?” one of the women groans. “That’s not possible. She gave me the vial.” She points at my mother.
I’m losing ground, and I don’t know what to say because I know she’s right.
“My daughter was the one who started this revolution,” my mother interjects. “Without her help, none of this would’ve happened.”
“What does he have to do with this?” They point at Noah, who steps back in fear.
I block him with my arm to defend him. “He brought me back to this community. It was his idea to begin with to start this revolution. Without him, I wouldn’t even be here.”
Some of them cock their heads, others mull it over, while some are still clutching their weapons tightly as though they mean to attack him.
“He helped my mother with the poison, he helped us hide a patriarch’s body, and he showed me the evils of this community so that I would fight against it. So I would fight for all of you,” I exclaim. “And he did it knowing he would lose his position as one of the most powerful men of this community. And he did it willingly,” I say. “That makes him one of the good guys.”
More sighs emanate from the crowd, but also more lower their weapons.
“How do we know who gets to survive and who doesn’t?” one asks. “Why start a revolution if you’re not going to kill them all?”
“We need men just as much as we need women to survive,” I explain. “But from now on, the women will rule.”
More smiles appear, and most of the women drop their weapons on the floor. “Power to the women!” one of them chants.
Soon, more join in until all of the women have banded together in unity, and the leftover men cower in fear.
“The time for men to rule is over. They will have a place in our society, but it will no longer be one of servitude and punishment,” I say out loud. “Who’s with me?”
All the women raise their hands and cheer. “For the women!”
“Power to the women!” I yell, and they continue cheering while approaching us.
For a mere second there, I’m terrified of what might happen. I’ve never been faced with such a crowd, but at the same time, I know things can’t ever get worse than they already were.
Noah and I squeeze hands, and he throws me a thankful look.
And I know right there and then that we will be okay.
I lean in and press a kiss to his cheeks. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asks.
“Everything,” I say, and I grab his face and plant my lips on his.
He smiles and wraps his arms around me, kissing me even harder, and the whole crowd erupts into cheers again.
“Get a room,” my mother jokes, and my lips tear away.
“Or a Hut,” I jest, and she laughs.
Noah lets go of me, and I step closer to my mother, who’s looking at the crowd in amazement. “I can’t believe we did all this,” she says.
I nod. “It’s almost unbelievable,” I reply. “Like, that hemlock … I can’t believe you found it right here in the community. It’s almost as if it was meant to be. Like this was meant to happen, and you were meant to help the others poison their husbands.”
“I know,” she replies.
I turn my head toward her. “How did you know what to do with it anyway?”
She shrugs. “I read a botany book.”
That must’ve been the book Patrick found.
“It was just lying on the table in Lawrence’s room, so I took it.”
I frown. “You just … found it lying around?”
She turns her head to me too and narrows her eyes. “Yeah. Maybe he was reading it too.”
My brow rises. “Interesting.”
Maybe the president had intended to poison his own wife too so he wouldn’t have to deal with her any longer and wouldn’t be blamed for her death. Luckily, she beat him to it.
Noah’s suddenly right behind me, and I almost jolt up and down. I forgot he was there. “Were you listening to our conversation this whole time?”
He shrugs, but there’s a particular deviant smile on his face that I can’t quite place. “Can’t help it. It’s in my nature to want to know everything.”
I roll my eyes but still smile anyway because his curiosity reminds me of myself. I guess we were always alike, just in a different way.
“I’m just glad that fucker is dead,” my mother suddenly says.
“Agreed,” I say, chuckling.
Her cheeky smile burns brighter than the evening sun. “Now … Let’s go clean up this community and start again, but this time, we’ll do it our way.”
Noah
Months ago
Before the fire
With the satchel in my hand, I dig up a few holes in random spots along the edge of the forest and empty the satchel above. The seeds sprinkle down on top of the soil, and I cover them with sand. The rain will take care of the water.
With a devious grin on my face, I tuck the satchel back into my pocket and go back to the temple, whistling a tune I learned from that greenhouse guy back when I was visiting with my father for one of our trips.
I go upstairs and go to my room, where I grasp a box hidden underneath my bed. I open it up and take out the book I got from a library in that same town we visited, and I walk back to the president’s room. He’s downstairs, eating lunch, which I’m skipping today, for obvious reasons.
I have a book someone needs to read.
By studying all the patriarchs and matriarchs schedules, I know that Marsha will come to his room in about five minutes … because the president always wants her to be naked in his bed by noon to receive her weekly fuck … And that this moment is by far the time she hates him the most.
Which is the same time I happen to accidentally lose a book on his bedside table. About how to poison a human and get away with it while thinking you were the one who came up with it.
Perfect.
