Willa

"Can you tell me about Edith?"

Willa smiles, wiping a bit of foam from her lip. She nods, prompting me to ask away.

I swallow hard. I don't even know where to begin. I down a gulp of Blue Moon to

soothe my nervously parched throat.

For decades, scholars have debated as to whether or not Willa Cather and Edith Lewis

were romantically involved. Most claim that if Cather was a lesbian, we would know.

She would be explicit. But how could she be? She was born in the nineteenth century.

Who then could have been explicit about same-sex interests? Those who protest her

likely homosexuality also proclaim that writer and editor Edith Lewis was simply her

best friend and long-time roommate. But for Chrissakes, they lived together for 40

years and are buried next to each other. I've never liked any of my roommates that

much.

"Did you love her?"

Willa smiles again, leaning back in her chair, folding her arms in a way that doesn't

display discontent, but rather the most comfortable contentedness I've ever seen.

"If there was no woman like her in the world, there would be no poetry."