I Will Find You

observed with an odd detachment. It was as though what was happening on that stage was happening to someone else. I was viewing a Hollywood thriller, and we had come to the inevitable rape scene. They were actors; I was the audience.

I looked at my hand, and saw a smear of red.

as the man dragged me across the stage,

rusty blade to my neck

or stitches in her foot

My parents didn’t get naked

never get to go otherwis

I worked for a newspaper, where facts mattered and skepticism was essential, and I tried to develop the cynicism I saw in older reporters while praying no one would figure out I was a fraud who had no business being in a newsroom.

I saw in older reporters while praying no one would figure out

But I also relied on my memories. Others who experienced this trauma may, like the woodcutter or the wife in Rashomon, have other perspectives and other stories to tell.