FEMALES ONLY by Marie Guillot

© September 2011

Graphic by Marie Guillot

The risks of being a female

You will never see Margot close to any male, young or old. In fact, it looks like a conspiracy. Every time she tries to meet the new kid on the block, there is some hurdle: there are visitors to greet, or it's lunch time, or it's downpouring, or they have to go somewhere. But the family is good to her and Margot is not a rebel; she is easy going and adjusts to the situation. She seems quite happy as it is.

Maybe her happiness has to do with the fact that she gets pregnant every year. The joys of raising her baby are heaven for her. It's also a great satisfaction for Anne's family. They usually invite friends to celebrate. That's when she is in her glory, when everyone admires her offspring, all white, the best one ever, praising every feature. Her own work.

There is only one thing she does not like: in the yard, her comrades despise her. They say she is only a surrogate womb. She does not understand what it means. All she knows is that she looks different from them. All of them are white, while she has black patches all over.

Once a year, she gets special attention: a friend of Anne comes with a bag of strange objects and there is a bit of fuss around her. Not much, not unpleasant, and it's soon over. 

Then they chat. It's almost the same tribute every time. The friend says: "You should get a strong one again, this year. Margot is a great girl."

And Anne replies: 

"We love her. She is a major asset in the development of our pure-bred Charolais cattle."

The Girl We Met by Victor Sullivan

© 2011
My wife and I were on holiday in West Cork, Ireland and it was around lunch-time when we stopped the car and picked up an American hitch-hiker. Her holiday was almost over, her money was spent and she was due to fly home to New York from Shannon Airport on the following day. We let her out in the village of Eyeries as she wished to photograph the colorful buildings as all the tourists do. We drove the two miles to our holiday chalet in Urhan.  

The first radio reports were coming in...  an aircraft had flown into one of New York's Twin Towers...  Then another one... America was under attack! All aircraft were grounded. 

As the enormity of the disaster became clearer the plight of our hitch-hiking American dawned on us and we drove back to Eyeries in search of that girl... but we failed to find her.