by Rebecca Callahan
wild
/wīld/
adjective: wild; comparative adjective: wilder; superlative adjective: wildest
- (of an animal or plant) living or growing in the natural environment; not domesticated or cultivated.
A small girl in a photograph: lined up with siblings and cousins, standing at the edge of her parents’ property, tangled hair hanging to her waist, hip jutted to one side, arms crossed against her chest. She stares straight into the camera like she’s issuing a challenge, willing to stand still for exactly three more seconds before she bolts back into the forest. - (of a place or region) uninhabited, uncultivated, or inhospitable.
A lush paradise where she can roam free, pushing through dripping underbrush, slopping through marshes, picking fruit from an ancient, gnarled apple tree that grows at one end of the meadow, dodging spiderwebs that stretch across trails, eating ripe blackberries straight off the vine, and wandering as far as possible from home.
Alternately, a barren plain scorched lifeless by a she-dragon, a mother who breathes fire at children who dawdle, or complain, or don’t clean their rooms. A hostile wilderness of thorns and thistles where children cower under a cloud-banked sky that simmers with rage. - lacking discipline or restraint.
A girl who cries, talks back, glares, forgets, slams, daydreams, spills, gets angry, trips, wets the bed, questions, shouts, wanders, scribbles, runs, tattles, challenges, interrupts, or defies the dragon. A girl whose wildness can’t be shrugged off like a jacket at the back door. - not based on sound reasoning or probability.
Stories about the girl as a toddler, throwing tantrums and veering out of control. Stories about her as a troubled, difficult, broken child. Stories about her committing violence against her siblings. Stories about her wreaking havoc in the home. Stories that differ wildly from the stories of others. An aunt who says, “no you weren’t.” A sister who says, “no you didn’t.” Stories that convince her, nonetheless. - (of a playing card) deemed to have any value, suit, color, or other property in a game at the discretion of the player holding it.
A dormant egg nestled deep in the girl’s body, waiting to come forth like a prophecy.
tame
/tām/
adjective: tame; comparative adjective: tamer; superlative adjective: tamest
- (of an animal) not dangerous or frightened of people; domesticated.
A young woman who calls her mother a saint but sees a devil in the mirror. A woman tortured by self-loathing and self-doubt, trying to crush that little girl in the picture. Tamp her down, shut her up, make her behave. Grateful for the dragon, now a slick-tongued serpent with soft scales, who swoops in to save her from herself. Grateful for all the help she can get, indebted to a mother who comes when she has a baby, a mother who cleans the house and does the laundry and takes care of her while she recovers. A young woman who never wonders: are these acts of love or control, selfless or self-serving? - (of a person) willing to cooperate.
A scene starring mother and adult daughter. The mother says her line: something cruel about the daughter, dismissive, calling up the old stories. The daughter suddenly goes off script, all honesty and vulnerability. Instead of anger, hurt. The mother improvises. She works herself into an indignant spate of rage-tears and cries, “How dare you!” The daughter returns to the script and says her line: “I’m sorry,” then leaves the stage awash in shame. - not exciting, adventurous, or controversial.
The woman with a daughter of her own, a child of prophecy with wildness in her too. The child climbs a great pine tree, thirty feet up. Her mother stands at the bottom, pleading, cajoling, commanding, then threatening. She will call the fire department, she says. The girl considers the threat and climbs down. Though relieved, as the mother follows her into the house, something inside her collapses just a bit, like a tiny sigh of defeat. She wonders as she watches her daughter march up the front steps, her narrow shoulders curved, if she feels it too. - (of a plant) produced by cultivation.
A redefinition. A reversal. A willingness to cultivate the challenger, the truth-teller, the living wilderness she sees blooming in her daughter. The results are uncertain. There are always dragons circling above. But there are those who celebrate wildness too, and for her daughter’s sake, the mother decides that one of those people will be her.
re·wild
/rēˈwīld/
verb: rewild; 3rd person present: rewilds; past tense: rewilded; past participle: rewilded; gerund or present participle: rewilding
- restore (an area of land) to its natural uncultivated state (used especially with reference to the reintroduction of species of wild animal that have been driven out or exterminated).
The woman’s daughter in a photograph: tangled hair, skinned knees, barefoot, careening around a corner sideways, arms spread wide, mouth open, in the middle of a laugh or a yell or both as she races outside to climb trees. Her mother holds the camera steady as the girl rushes forward, and in the split second after the shutter snaps, she runs past her mother, toward the front door, out of the house and into the bright, wild, joyful day.
Rebecca Callahan is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University. Originally from the Pacific Northwest but now based in Utah, Rebecca has lived all over the United States., including California, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. When she is not busy writing and making things out of fabric, she loves to travel anywhere near the ocean.