Emma Brankin: MARILYN MONROE LETS THE LIVESTOCK IN

Emma Brankin
MARILYN MONROE LETS THE LIVESTOCK IN

When her husband tells her no, you can’t invite the wet, bedraggled cow caught in the rainstorm into their house overnight, Norma Jean kicks him out. She’s had enough—why are decisions something other people get to make?

So she pours herself a bourbon and listens to his cursing as his pick-up truck drives down the dirt-track to his mother’s. Then, she swings open the front door and gently clucks her tongue as the creature slowly trots its way inside.

There, in her small, floral-wallpapered hallway, beauty and beast hover, uncertain. Norma Jean eyes the animal’s fluorescent ear-tag, runs a nervous hand through her brunette coils and makes a tepid joke about liking its earring. The animal shivers, doubt in its black beaded eyes. She knows it now questions her kindness, the belief that comfort can ever last for long.
Slowly, she reaches out her hand to its soaked, bulky body. She wants it to wince. To not be so trusting, naïve and kind.

Don’t be that fostered child smiling at the adult they think will always stick around.

Don’t be that sixteen-year-old girl marrying the man she barely knows.

Don’t be that obliging woman closing the door during another meeting with the boss.

“It’s good to be afraid,” she says to the animal. “Take your time. Get to really know me.”

Norma Jean gives the cow its space, lets the water melt from its body beside the glow of her fireplace. She stands by her kitchen window watching the rain lash down like strikes of a palm. She finishes her drink and considers what’s next, wonders where she can buy some hay.

Emma Brankin is a teacher from Glasgow, Scotland with a Masters in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She was recently shortlisted for the Bridport Prize’s short story contest as well as won Fugue Fiction’s short story prize and the To Hull And Back short story contest. Other work has appeared in places such as SmokeLong Quarterly, Reflex, and X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine. You can contact her on Twitter @emmanya.