The wall against my cheek is cold. My cheekbone against the wall is hard. The skin between the wall and my cheekbone sticks and slides rhythmically; I feel the needed separation from myself. Skin sticking to wall, skull sliding beneath, friction a non-issue. Just cold, hard, up and down pulling on my face. Like my cheek against the wall, my knees, my elbows, and the tops of my feet are sliding and gripping against the floor, synced with the penetrating forces behind me. I'm dissociating, but I can still count the rhythmic thrusts that deepen my relationship to these hardened surfaces.
17, 18, 19, 20...
I notice the size of my body. Not exactly small, but not exactly able to successfully resist the concerted interest of the five men grabbing and manipulating my body. There was an attempt early on to resist. My polite backing away, my well-mannered utterances of "oh, no, no thank you, I ought to be going now", my averted gaze and limbs held close to my sides -- all unfortunate gestures of feminine compliance to avoid conflict -- were received as cheery provocation. There was a line that was crossed when I dropped the girlish charade and started hitting back.
21, 22, 23, 24...
It feels good to hit back. To feel my bony knuckles make contact with a fleshy gut or chest or leg or neck. To yank an arm back that was twisted viciously behind me. To bite the hand that stupidly thought it could open my lips. But to hear cajoling laughter sour into rage when my heel met a lip and drew blood... this did not feel good. The wave of apologetic consolation (feminine compliance or actual good will?) was cut off before I could find it. It is defeating to experience my full-out fighting energies snapped like nothing more than a twig.
25, 26, 27...