Fiction by Rachelle Taylor.
Download “Mercy” by Rachelle Taylor.
When the last sow died, Merete Silas began scheming on how she was going to get the boy. Her plan wasn’t terribly complex, though for several weeks she tried to make it so. She lacked the faculties of the women in her mother’s old books to properly impress a man: she had no musical talents or a voice that could make angels blush, nor did she have any matchmaker friends. In some books a nice dress was good enough, and she settled on the idea.
Rachelle Taylor is a native of the Appalachian region of Virginia. She received her MA in English from Radford University in 2010 and is currently pursuing a PhD at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Her work has previously appeared in The Blotter, Neon, Gertrude, and Gloom Cupboard. She writes an ongoing series of poems inspired by turtles and tortoises, which can be read at: theshelledlife.blogspot.com.