At My Purple Heart Ceremony, My Stepmother Swung a Folding Chair Into My Arm—Then My Father Looked Down Instead of Protecting Me
Seventeen-year-old handwriting.
One page:
Dad says Gertrude only yells because she cares. I wish she cared less.
I sat on my apartment floor and cried.
Not because I had forgotten.
Because teenage me had already understood what adult me spent years trying to reinterpret.
Another page:
If I can get through basic training, nobody can tell me when I am allowed to breathe again.