Post-Traumatic

by Chantal V. Johnson

Vivian so resented men in these moments, lacking in spatial empathy, never having had to learn to lessen themselves,

Decades of competition with other women—social, not biological—combined with a desire to maintain, always, a veneer of friendliness toward men, made them perceive Vivian as the enemy.

Vivian knew by then that you couldn’t trust men at first, that you had to withhold judgment, carefully evaluating them in a variety of contexts before you made your final determination.