Carmen Maria Machado's "The Husband Stitch" reads similarly, yet differently from other coming of age stories. We are introduced to an unnamed protagonist as she, intimately, describes to us her life, from a child with a boy who she grows with through their relationship as it blossoms into marriage. The more that the boy becomes aware of her body, the more she imposes rules on her body. One of the most important rules being about the ribbon around her neck: "You shouldn’t touch it, [she says]. You can’t touch it." This develops into a hyperawareness of the ribbon from her and the boy. Until they grow up and are in bed, married with a child in college, does she let him break this rule: "Resolve runs out of me. I touch the ribbon. I look at the face of my husband, the beginning and end of his desires all etched there." He pulls the ribbon and, to both their misfortunes, her head falls off.
