False Witness

by Karin Slaughter

“I know that sounds crazy, to forget something like that. But when you’re a girl, especially if you start to develop early, and you get breasts and hips, and you have all these hormones that you don’t know what to do about, grown men will say inappropriate things to you all the time, Walter. All the time.” He nodded, but his fist was still clenched. “They wolf-whistle or they touch your breasts or they brush their cocks against your back and then pretend it’s an accident. Or they talk about how sexy you are. Or they say that you’re mature for your age. And it’s gross because they’re so old. And it makes you feel disgusting. And if you call them on it, they laugh or they say you’re uptight or you’re a bitch or you can’t take a joke.” Leigh had to make herself slow down again. “The only way you can get through it, the only way you can breathe, is that you just put it somewhere else so that it doesn’t matter.”