In that moment, my heart went to stone.
In our culture girls remained indoors, quiet and veiled for life.
I didnt think about what I did next.
Courtesy Maria Toorpakai / Twelve Books
They were so heavy, it took an entire hour.
In a cabinet on a shelf in the kitchen.
I soaked the clothes in kerosene as clear as water and I struck a match.
Courtesy Maria Toorpakai / Twelve Books
Then she stopped suddenly and stood strangely still.
He saw the first bucket drop, then the second.
His sister had been just like mestrong, androgynous, and hot-tempered.
A tomboy simply could not survive in the cage our culture expected girls to live in.
Often girls doused themselves in kerosene before lighting a match.
Once hed watched a girl in the village go up like a human torch.
When it was over, hed seen what was left of her charred body.
Then my father approached the burning pit and stepped up to me, laughing.
He ran his fingers all through my massacred hair.
My new son must have a name befitting a great warrior and the battle just won without blood.
We will call you Genghis Khan.
And Maria was gone.
From the bookA DIFFERENT KIND OF DAUGHTER.
Copyright (c) 2016 by Maria Toorpakai.
Reprinted by permission of Twelve/Hachette Book Group, New York, NY.
