Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Guest post by Sherlina Nageer of Red Thread, Guyana

This is how it happens
This is how it happens
8:30pm
A woman is walking home alone
Nevermind what she’s wearing
There is no one else on the road
Some streetlights, but not the whole way
A car rolls up slowly behind her
Young man at the wheel begins the familiar hustle- “Goodnight. How you doing?”
Seemingly innocuous, right? Except that it isn’t
As usual, she ignores them
She is five houses away from her gate
Rebuffed, the car drives off
Then it pulls onto a neighbor’s bridge and turns around
Coming back, directly at her now
She is caught in the headlights
When they meet again, a hand snakes out the window and grabs her arm
Instinctively, she pulls away
“Touch me again, motherfucker!” she spits furiously
He looks at her semi-curiously
This seems not to be the reaction he…