The Rape

I was going through some old files and found some pieces that I wrote many years ago that continue to touch me profoundly today. This piece was a sequel to one that I wrote detailing the shock that I and others in the Anderson Township community felt when we heard that a female shopper at our local Beechmont Mall had been abducted from the parking lot in broad daylight, kidnapped and raped. The first piece talked about how our seemingly safe and homogenous neighborhood had been transformed by the evil that entered its gates. The second piece speaks to...... well here you go, read it for yourself and you will see where I was going with it.

The Rape, Part II.

The power of information

A signed affidavit

Releases your identity

I stare at your name

I recognize it, yet I can’t picture your face in my mind

Perhaps I do know you

Perhaps our paths really have crossed

Sometime long ago.

I know that when you were nameless

Just a local victim whose life was torn apart

In the middle of my bubble universe

I thought about your ordeal

And wondered how something so awful could

Occur here among the peaceful people

A generalized fear settled in my bones

As my world was rendered no longer safe

I had no photograph then, just scant details

From which to conjure your image

But with the powerful reach of the internet

I searched your perpetrator’s name

And discovered the police file with your name in full

No longer blacked out or written in code

Due to an administrative error

I now know who you are and where you are

You are just a few years older than I

We have mutual friends, yet you do not really know me

And I can not really know your pain

Only reflect back on how your attack

made us all feel violated and afraid

And I see how closely our lives really do intersect

One bubble floating by another

Free to roam, until an intruder’s presence

Pierced the spheres and

dribbles of your life and my life

merged with each other resulting in tears.

8/20/03

rev. 8/23/03

Michelle Beckham-Corbin