In one heartbreaking passage, this author describes what happened between his relatives when they were teenagers.
"They have just come back from an AJC meeting and as Lien talks she looks down at her sandals and at her gray woolen socks.
'You know, when I was away, in the wartime, a man did things to me that I didn't like.'
Kees slows his step.
'What kinds of things?' he asks her, intrigued for once.
She hadn't planned this and doesn't have the language.
There is a word that has been whispered by the wide-eyed girls in class.
Rape (Verkrachten).
'He used to rape me,' she says.
The phrase feels awkward in her mouth.
Kees stands still.
'Did he take your clothes off?' he asks.
As she looks up at him, Kees suddenly looks childish in his red neckerchief and his khaki AJC shorts. Turning away, she starts to walk.
He lags behind and then strides towards her.
'Hey, if you can do it with some stranger you can do it with me,' he puffs.
'I could make you,' he adds after a moment, mumbling.
When he speaks like this, she is suddenly frightened and she begins to run.
'You are odd!' he shouts at her, without trying to catch up."
Page 232
~ Bart van Es
"The Cut Out Girl..."
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36978239-the-cut-out-girl
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