A family member in the hospital became my go-to gut reaction whenever I felt in danger. When I lived in New York, I was walking home at 3:00 a.m. one time and I felt like a guy was following me. Without missing a beat, I whipped out my cell phone and went, “What, Mom? Dad’s in the hospital! I’ll be right there!” and started running. So first of all, even in mortal danger, I felt like I needed an excuse to run away from a man for fear of offending him. But second of all, I assumed he’d take pity on me in that moment. “Well, I can’t rape her now, the poor girl’s dad’s in the hospital. I hope
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