Jennifer Weigel: I wrote this story to try to consider the transformation that inevitably comes with hardship. Everything we endure shapes who we are, for better and for worse. And with the need for resilience comes grief, an all-consuming yearning for some other outcome, for a life we once held dear, even for things that weren’t serving us well because they were familiar in their pain. Whether we act from a place of anger, spite, peace, or hope, sometimes survival is its own seemingly unending conclusion. And sometimes, that is enough.
Linda: This story is fundamentally about hardship and how it changes us, and it resonated with me at a level that surprised me. My mind and thoughts keep coming back to it. Life is so full of moments that inspire or traumatize us and millions more that pass without acknowledgement. I don’t know if this is just me or if it is for most people, but it is the traumatizing ones that seem to stick with me at a deeper level, that resurface from time and actually influence my decision-making. What I mean is, when I think of the deaths I have witnessed, I remember the peaceful moments, the respite they experienced, but it is the painful moments that seem more vivid to me, that linger and reflect my perspective about death and dying, and influenced me to become a hospice volunteer to help others cope with their experiences. I really liked how Jennifer used the Wendigo legend to visualize the personal transformation that occurs from hardship, but, the dichotomy of the prey and the predator also resonated with me. At a more literal level, and I don’t know if she intended this, there was the deer and the human, both distressed, both weak, but the deer could only defend herself. There was no possibility of the deer winning since deer are not carnivores. The human predator was the hardship, and the deer succumbed, just like many humans succumb to the hardships they experience. They change, but unlike the character in this story, it can be transformational in a destructive way. Hardship does not always make us stronger, but it always changes us. How, is in our control, but only to a limited degree, and that is what makes this story terrifying for me.