From the moment I was born, my fate was decided for me. It was no longer a choice for girls to make, a choice of sacrifice and luxury, or family and poverty.
I was born on a cold, misty summer morning before the sun rose. My mother died twenty minutes before I came. They had to perform an emergency cesarean section, and I was deemed the miracle girl. Also known as the girl without a mother.
From the moment I was born, I was an orphan. I had no mother, I had no father. My five older sisters were all married off to billionaires or small-world dictators. I had no other family.
I was born, and then I was almost killed. Orphans had no place in an already overpopulated world. The doctors wanted to kill me and then donate me to a medical school. The nurses wanted to keep me on and train me as the first-ever female nurse. But women have no place in the work world. They decided to sell me off early to a rich family, to become the bride of the oldest son.
From the moment I was born, I was betrothed to a man. A boy, really, but a man all the same. My fate was the same as every other girl, but that didn’t make it right.
I was born, and then I was named. My mother left no records of baby names, and my sisters wanted nothing to do with me. The doctors felt I was hardly worth anything and didn’t need a name. They planned to hand me off to my future husband’s family right away and simply call me Baby #214365061. A small group of nurses got together to name me. They could not agree on anything. Finally, they gave up and called me Cypress.
cy·press
ˈsīprəs/
noun.
name.
1. the cypress tree is a funeral emblem; sacred to Hades, god of the Underworld
2. no certain meaning; nothing
What would you do if you were me?
