But then the people who really live there show up with their kids - the woman is so confused because those kids look like grown-up versions of the kids she was imagining having with Bad. When she gets there it's exactly like she always imagined and she and the baby, Mara, finally relax. She goes there with the baby - maybe it's a cabin that they always drove by and fantasized about or maybe they really did live there for a time.

She has a break from reality and mental breakdown. She daydreams about the life and house that she and Bad would have had together in the cabin in the woods. Her grief for the relationship intensifies. The woman is then left with the baby and as she struggles to care for her, she becomes sleep deprived and unstable. Bad brings her the baby - the pregnancy and baby resulted from Bad's hectic lifestyle. Her ex has moved on but still mourns the relationship. My thought is that this was about two women who used to be together, then the one called 'Bad' left, due to substance abuse and all of the complications that go along with it (poor health, lying, personality changes, and finally, homelessness). I'm going to say my theory, but I have a feeling most of the story went way over my head - so I'm probably wrong. (view spoiler) [This story really confused me. The way I took the story, it is an indication on how often men do not take the time to truly understand women's experiences fully and deeply, how women are rarely believed when they are talking about their lives and stories, and how things that many men view as a 'harmless' desire (untying the green ribbon) can in fact be incredibly harmful it reads to me a lot like many assault stories that aren't on a surface level cut and dried 'violent attack in a alley by a masked stranger,' but rather 'someone who I loved and trusted coerced me and wore me down until my resistance was pointless'. The husband is surprised by what happens when he unties the ribbon because, in my interpretation, in this world men don't truly know what women's ribbons are for.

The linked article is what led me to this book in the first place. I'd highly recommend reading this article about this story. (view spoiler) [The stitching doesn't have to do with the green ribbon- it refers to 'the husband stitch,' a practice where doctors (almost always without the knowing consent of the patient), when repairing tears from childbirth, will add extra stitches to make the patient's vagina, in the future, feel tighter (therefore more 'pleasurable') to a sexual partner.

Her body and other parties book