Ronald Cotton

A woman’s invisible scars
Jennifer Thompson was a young girl with her life in the palm of her hands. She was beautiful, smart, fit, and ready to begin her life. She was a straight “A” student at Elon College and constantly had her nose in the books. She was a confident woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t willing to settle. She had a healthy relationship with her family and a boyfriend whom she was madly in love with and planning to marry. In a word, her life was perfect. Unfortunately, her perfect life came crumbling down all because of one horrific night. Jennifer Thompson was raped, and although she made it through that night alive physically, emotionally she was dead. The man who raped Jennifer had been watching her, how long was unknown, snuck into her house one night and took something much more valuable than her possessions. He stole her sense of self and the security in which she lived her day to day life. Jennifer was able to escape using her wit, but escaping him physically was the easy part as he was constantly in her memory. After she escaped, she found refuge in a neighbor’s house and was eventually escorted down to the police department. There she was asked to give a detailed description of her attacker and to recall any details that may be of importance. This is something that was probably painful for Jennifer as the incident only happened a few hours earlier. However, Jennifer understood that it was necessary in order to catch the man that destroyed her that night. She was strong and more determined than ever to catch the man that stole her innocence. Jennifer recounted every detail she could remember from earlier that night. She described everything from his body height, to facial hair, to the smell that flooded her nose as he touched her body in a volatile way without her consent. Although Jennifer’s life would never be the same, one thing the rapist did not take from her was her determination. In fact, he only increases her