I Can, I Will, I Have Done

“You can’t.”

That’s how it started. A boy, a girl and the words, “You can’t”.

With her mother having died from pneumonia, only six months earlier, Suzie arrived at her 21st birthday realising little else had changed in her life. Her sole purpose was now to keep the house in order, an ordeal which started before dawn and ended way after her father and brother had gone to bed. There was bread to bake, grocery shopping to do, cleaning, cooking; the list was endless and she collapsed into bed at night for a fitful few hours sleep grabbed between her loads of work.

“Why was I born different ma?” She spoke to her mother as if she was there listening. “Why was I born like you, with the female body parts? All I want is to be like Phillip – he can run about, he can vote for change, a change that doesn’t affect me so much as him and father.” A small tear trickled down her cheek. “I’m clever too ma, smarter than Phillip with his C’s, but he is the one who gets to vote for change, a change that will not affect me at all. Oh Ma.”

“Talking to yourself Suzie my girl.” Her father had entered the room quietly. “’Tis not right at your age. I know you miss your mother girl but she is gone and we must all accept that now. Enough of this jibber-jabber. Now, where’s the meal? Late...you know that’s a whipping girl.” And he sat at the table cleaning his nails with a knife.

“Pa,” Suzie gulped nervously. “Pa, I want to join the movement. I want women like me to be able to vote. It’s already been announced that Oklahoma and Oregon have allowed women the right to vote. Please Pa, could we move to one of those states?”

Pa took another knife-full of meat and placed it in his mouth, almost as if he had never heard his daughter. After chewing for a while he spat it back onto his plate, something unheard of, and sat straight. “Oh how I wished and prayed that the good Lord would give me two strong strapping sons to help with the business. But I was given a daughter. And Lord knows I have been good to her as befits her status among us. But hark, what is this I hear, she wants rights above her station. Wants to uproot the entire family for Oklahoma or Oregon  so that she can vote. Voting is man’s work child. You can’t.”

Pa and Phillip stood from the table and left to go back out into the yard leaving Suzie to clean up. “I can and I will.”

The next few days Suzie could be seen sneaking plywood and two by fours from the workspace outside. She found herself a quiet place and built herself a large box. Inside this box was a smaller box with fancy dials and buttons made from things she had appropriated from the house: spoons, forks, buttons, jar lids. Finally it was ready, and she began hauling provisions into her large box, making sure to leave just enough room for herself.

Sooner than she expected she was ready. Even earlier than usual one morning she packed her bag with the clothes she would need for the trip. She left the house for her box in the woods. Settling in she rearranged everything to her standards. It was time.

She moved a lever made from a silver fork, turned a button made from a jam jar lid and pushed in a contraption made from a cotton reel. The box began to squeak and sway. Pushing more buttons she set time and date but most importantly place. A loud humming filled the box and it began to vibrate. This got louder and louder and faster and faster until there was a flash of light and then utter silence. The control panel was on fire and Suzie took some precious bottled water to douse the flames. She had arrived.

Where had she arrived.

Stepping out from the box into the forest she noticed that it was snowing and that icicles had already formed on some of the trees surrounding her – as if she was in a fairy forest – leaving the baths below them slippery with wet leaves and grass. She walked out the forest and for a second you would assume that she had never left. There was Phillip sawing in the yard with Pa shouting instructions. Only difference being she wasn’t there. She stepped out further and then further still. Suddenly Phillip noticed her and put down his saw.

“Why, lookit Pa, it’s the wanderer. And seemingly not a day older than when she left us. Still 21 I see. We’ve aged well, lived well without you since you up and left us 10 years ago.”

“My girl.” Pa stood and walked, with difficulty, up to his only daughter. HE slapped her first on one cheek and then the other whilst she stood silent.

“Pa, I thought it only fair to inform you that I will be voting in the election tomorrow; it’s November 1920 now Pa and that right is mine. I shall also be living on my own, in control of my own life. You told me I can’t vote. That I can’t change my lot in life, but I can. And I will.” Suzie turned and walked out of the yard back into the forest to her box, which she could turn into a single-room living space. It wasn’t pleasant or ideal, but she could bear with it for a while, just until she earned enough to rent a small place.

“I can. I will. And one day...I have done.”