To the Bridge

by Nancy Rommelmann

“You think some abusers are different? No! I’ve been a defense attorney for twelve years, and if you don’t think he’s a dime a dozen—he’s a dime a dozen!” he said. “These guys have a certain thing: they knock ’em down, they cut them off from all their family and friends, they control the money, they control the resources. It’s piece by piece by piece by piece to where they control everything, and in the process they’re beating them down emotionally: ‘You’re not smart enough. You’re not pretty enough.’ I don’t need to know who the abuser is. I know who he is: he’s an abuser. It’s not like it’s a new way to do it.”

There is no such thing as an immutable truth, much as our hearts might yearn for it and our justice systems demand it; there are only the stories we tell ourselves.