Status Updates From Behind You

It finally turns.

Foggy place. Cactus days. A public self defence demonstration that was assault itself. Rape whistle. No no no no. The bile continues to simmer. Sick.

Hernandez puts concretely into words the feelings all women subconsciously know but can’t pronounce. It simmers and I wait for it to boil over. I feel sick.

Immigrant family. “Dutiful child”. Apologizing and shrinking for survival. Bracing myself for something terrible to happen every time a male character appears, it’s already terrible, the way everyone, including I, knows the evil that lies beneath these encounters, but not evil enough, not justified in reacting, so sinister. This is a hard read; everything as if it was all normal and yet quietly devastating.