A short short

So the wonderful Aerodrome published my short story on their website today. The story sort of unravelled like most stories do, prompting a reflection on being a young girl in post-Apartheid South Africa. My own experience of being female in a heavily-patriarchal society, and growing up in a border town with a lot of the sorts of people featured in it, inspired the characters and the most disastrous of all of disasters, getting one’s period in public.

As a teenager, there is nothing that could ever feel more shameful. Nothing that stings or burns or weeps more than exposing an inherently female experience. It’s something girls dread and it is a fear that continues on into most of our adult lives.

So, check out The Accidental Colour here