Although this happened years ago, she still is obsessive about locking doors and windows. It was a terrible experience. It happened before AIDS. I often think about how horrible it would be to have that fear added to the rest.
This is something my sister did: She thought she was going to die, and had the presence of mind to begin talking softly to the man and keep doing it during the rape. She said things like, "You seem like a man who would have a nice family, do you? You wouldn't like it if someone did this to your mother, would you? Do you have a sister, or a wife? Really, I wish you would think of me as your sister or wife, and treat me the way you would wish them to be treated...."
She just kept it up as well as she could. Before the rape, he had taken all the money he could find, and she had helped him to find it. After it, he bizarrely returned two dollars, leaving it on the kitchen table as he went out.
We wonder if the reason he didn't beat her up, as he did his other victims, is because she kept talking to him about his family. |
