AustLit

'Naked from the waist down, with one foot on the lip of the bathtub and the other on the cold tile floor, I looked up at the ceiling and let Mum push the tampon further inside me. I had tried to do it myself, but there was a wall. "My body must be different to yours," I said. She laughed, unable to meet my seriousness. I could hear Dad on the other side of the door: his footsteps and the sound of taps turning on, the whispered scream of running water. Mum lowered her voice, indulging a charade of conspiracy. "Trust me, Rose." We both looked away as she pushed one more time. When the pain left my body I felt a mixture of relief and shame. She had been right. I felt safe knowing how unmysterious I was to her.' (Publication abstract)