DAY 24 OF OC-TOBER: Lana Harper

She never had her mom around to give her heart-to-heart lessons to pave her way to womanhood. Her mom left so early on in her life she doesn’t even recall what she looks like. There’s not even a photo laying around. Her small, split up family weren’t the photo taking, photo displaying type. Everything she needed to know, when the cramps hit at the age of eleven, Lana had to rely on her aunt. She pretty much depended on her for guidance until she had her own children to take care of.

She never learned how to fight from her dad. No, her dad took to isolation to drown himself in alcohol for reasons she didn’t fully understand as a little girl. By the time she got older and could understand, she didn’t care. She was too angry by his neglect. Growing more angry when she could never get a response out of him, not even a snap or be told to go away in annoyance. He just sat there with a blank stare at the tv that only has one channel. And the sounds of crickets drove Lana almost crazy.

So no, Lana never learned how to fight from her dad. She learned it from a group of female fighters who taught her discipline to tame her teenage rage. This sisterhood, while strict at times, provided the missing years of neglect of an absent mother and an isolated father. She never needed them. That’s a lie, she did, as a little girl then growing into a confused, angry young teen, she needed them more than ever, but she’s long past that stage of her life.

And she doesn’t need them.

• Lana Harper the Red Wolf
• Artwork
-- Belongs to Radical-Alex