And So She Did

Winner of the Barbie Dream Gap Project x Girls Write Now: Inspiring Women Writing Contest for the Age 13-18 Category

Tlack. Tlack. Tlack. That was the sound of Anayeli’s once-white Reeboks hitting the gravel, a mixture of crushed rock and dried mulch. Today was the day she would win. The path around the canary yellow field was four hundred meters long and worn down from the constant heat spell and humidity in the air. Hoo. Hoo. Hoo. Anayeli’s breathing remained constant, every step she took was accompanied by the sound of her heart beating and her lungs contracting. She had planned this race well for weeks. Start near the end of the pack of sweaty boys and work her way to the front. She could see Jose and Jacob’s shirt backs up ahead. I am a jaguar. She loosened her arms with each stride. I have the strength of a thousand suns. Sun. Sun. Sun. She reached Jose and stayed with him for a bit as she rounded the corner of the path. Of course, he tried to speed up once Anayeli started to pass him. But Anayeli remembered. She remembered every day after school the sweat soaked practices and her coach with his gray stopwatch timing them lap after lap, set after set. “Try to keep up to the boys if you can,” he would say. “You’re getting pretty fast for a girl.” No, coach, I am faster than the boys. I am speed. Inside of Anayeli’s heart, between her lungs and inside all her cells, she felt the fire of Arizona in her mind, her third eye, the presence of a higher power fused to her soul. She kept going. Second lap. She passed Jacob. There was only one more boy to catch. She was running for herself, for all the sisters, for her mother, for all the girls who were told “no” because life has never been fair for girls like her. It was always never enough. A halfway effort compared to her male teammates. She could hear Jose’s heavy breathing behind her. His steps grew louder with each swing of her elbows. Anayeli could feel the lactic acid building up in her legs. Her mind begged her to slow down. But that didn’t matter. Because she had a bigger mission. Her heart took control of her feet. Her almost black braids pounded against her back. Every step has an intention. This was it. The third lap. The moment that the men separated from the boys. But she was more than that. She had the power of the women who had blessed this earth before her. She thought of the special shoes she had to wear when she was four. Little blue boots to walk and stand up. I am. She thought of the pride when she had scored a goal in the pickup soccer game last year. I can. She thought of her mother working night to morning, morning to night at the corner pharmacy then at the school. I will. Tlack. Hoo. Sun. I am. I can. I will. We girls never give up. At that instance, the blue shirt in front of her melted into the last bus of the day, the last scholarship, the last cafeteria meal. It was a target far greater than her. It was her chance at freedom. Anayeli opened her stride and pushed off the earth as fast as she could, leaving dents in the gravel. She was suspended in a dreamlike state as she flew through the air. She was the eagle and the desert saguaro. The jaguar and the black braids. The Reeboks and the runner’s heart. On the final sprint of the last lap, she passed Adam. The wind carried her forward. She had three hundred meters left. Left foot, right foot. Go, go, go. Two hundred. The wisps of dead grass seemed to sway in approval at her swift movements. One hundred. The clouds clapped as she rounded the last corner. And the rain started to fall as she crossed the wavy line in the rocky path below the soles of her feet. It was the tears of all of the women together—sad, happy, celebrating another mile run in a race stretching back generations. Because she could and so she did.

Sophie Da Silva

Sophie Da Silva is an avid sixteen-year-old writer living in Houston,Texas. Through her poetry, shortstories, flash fiction, and her first novel in the works, she hopes to explore her multicultural Latine background and share stories that touch readers. Her most recent work was published in the Girls Write Now 2024 Anthology and is also forthcoming in several publications. Aside from writing, she loves running, reading, and promoting sustainability in fashion!