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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.”
