The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad (20 page)

Nick exclaims, “I knew you'd say no! This is the moment I've always dreamed of! You've made me the happiest man in the world!” He throws his arms around her.

Brigitte turns to the group and says, “And that's
our
happy ending.”

Romantic music swells, white doves fly, and rose petals fall from the sky (or at least the ceiling), as Brigitte and Nick gently kiss.

Abruptly, the music stops. Everyone in the cheese factory notices its absence.

Gina turns to Brigitte. “What do you mean, ‘ending'? Okay, we stopped rape. We empowered women. What about the rest?”

Marilyn asks, “The rest?”

Gina answers, “Sure. Now that we're all empowered and everything, what are we going to do with that? The world didn't need rapists. As far as they don't overlap, does the world need CEOs? Politicians? Fast-food restaurants? Fashion magazine publishers? Dictators? Advertising? Industrialists? Priests?
Generals?”

Marilyn whines, in a way that only teenagers can whine, “Mom! Don't you
ever
get tired?”

They all laugh, eat cheese, and continue talking and knitting.

Marilyn, much older now, stands at the front of a classroom.

She is talking to her students. She says, “My mom and her friends didn't set out to change the world. All they wanted to do was make fabulous sweaters. But it led to much more than that. Now we have a beautiful existence. No more rape, no more war, freedom from all the horrors and injustices of capitalism. And, though this is all theoretical to you thus far, even sex is better.

“For now we've put our knitting needles back on the shelf. But we remember where they are, just in case.”

Hailed as the philosopher poet of the ecological movement, Derrick Jensen is the widely acclaimed author of
Endgame, A Language Older than Words,
and
The Culture of Make Believe,
among many others. Jensen's writing has been described as “breaking and mending the reader's heart”
(Publishers Weekly).
His books with PM include:
Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture
and the novels
Songs of the Dead
and
Lives Less Valuable.

Author, teacher, activist, and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he regularly stirs auditoriums across the country with revolutionary spirit. Jensen holds a degree in mineral engineering physics from the Colorado School of Mines, and has taught at Eastern Washington University and Pelican Bay Prison. He lives in Crescent City, California.

Stephanie McMillan self-syndicates the award-winning editorial cartoon
Code Green,
and creates the daily comic strip
Minimum Security
for Universal Uclick.

She has a book of comics journalism,
The Beginning of the American Fall
(Seven Stories Press, 2012); a comic strip collection,
Attitude Presents Minimum Security
(NBM, 2005); plus two other books co-created with Derrick Jensen: a graphic novel,
As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial
(Seven Stories Press, 2007); and a children's book,
Mischief in the Forest
(PM Press/Flashpoint, 2010).

She is also an organizer for the anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist collective One Struggle (onestrugglesouthflorida.wordpress. com). She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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