Caroline O'Donoghue: Things I would do if I wasn’t afraid of being murdered
"My fear of men as a category would be entirely replaced by empathy for them as a whole."
If I wasn’t afraid of being murdered, I would do yoga at night. I would meet my friend at the bandstand in the park, and we wouldn’t be afraid to come from different entrances because you don’t have to meet your friend in a well-lit public area if you’re not afraid of being followed and killed. We would meet in the darkness with our yoga mats tucked under our arms, and we would find a cool, beautiful place to stretch and breathe. Everything would smell amazing, the honeysuckle having been slow-roasted in the daylight, the aroma unleashing over us. I would look over and see her breathe in thick, concentrated puffs as she tries to stay steady in chair pose. Every so often we would hear a high-pitched squeal, and we would say “probably a fox”, and we would be sure that it probably was a fox. And not, say, a person.
