What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

by Claire Jiménez

I never wanted that for my girls—to experience that type of violence, because sometimes getting hit like that made you think you didn’t deserve to fucking smile.

(From Matt, I learned that truly smart people did not walk around constantly insisting on their intelligence, because there was nothing to prove; Matt knew he was a genius, and it was a fact that mostly bored and embarrassed him, a fact that had gotten his ass kicked enough times growing up in Newark, New Jersey, for him to learn not to show off.)

And for a brief moment, for just one small moment, nobody was able to touch her.