The Discovery
A short story about a girl's first period.
1492: The discovery
30 September 1492
Every day I sit for 10 hours a day, trying to finish this carpet. My grandmother always said that good girls weave excellent carpets. It's a difficult skill to acquire. We cannot be admitted into the guild because we are women. I am tired of making carpets. I want to marry a Prince.
1 October 1492
My grandmother made me eat a delicacy of a half formed chick in the egg. She said it would make me strong and beautiful, so I held my nose and ate it. I wanted feel like an adult.
4 October 1492
I think I am going to die. The baby chick I ate the other day must be growing inside me and it died. I'm really scared and I have not told anyone. I have a sharp pain in my belly and it's not going away, I think the chicken is growing bigger and bigger in my stomach and it's trying to come out. I really don't know what to do. The pain in my stomach comes and goes and I am trying to feel if it's growing.
6 October 1492
The pain started again today. I got scared. Today, something worse happened. I started bleeding. And I couldn't stop it. It started to flow down my legs as I sat weaving the carpets. I ran to get some cloth to stop the bleeding. I was going to die giving birth to a chicken. I was lucky because no one saw and I am not going to tell anyone even if I give birth to a chicken.
11 October 1492
Today the bleeding stopped. I didn't give birth to a chicken. But maybe it is growing bigger inside of me... I'm still very scared and I think I'm going to tell my grandmother tomorrow because it's all her fault. She made the chicken grow inside of me.
12 October 1492
I found the courage and I told my grandmother in a firm way that it was all her fault that I'm giving birth to a chicken. And the other day there was so much blood and I was so scared. But I don't think I'm going to die, because if I did, I would have died bleeding. She smiled and took me in her arms.
