In my novel, On the Edge of Then and Now, my protagonist Becky is sexually assaulted, but when she tells her friends, her mother, the local cops, she realizes how much her assault is minimized when she’s forced to say ‘Nothing happened,’ simply because she escaped before he could go all the way, which leaves her with no proof.
In my novel, my other protagonist, Cade, suffers violent abuse, both physical and emotional, at the hands of his father, who knows where to hit so that others can’t see his wounds, the parts that can be hidden behind a flannel, even on the warmest of days.
Both Becky and Cade learn the hard truth that adults shy away from complicated realities and are forced to step up and speak up until they can no longer be ignored. They figure out how to turn ‘Nothing happened’ into ‘Something happened, and I’ll prove it.’
Teens and adults can both benefit from reading my debut novel On the Edge of Then and Now so they can feel the frustration and helplessness when their situation is minimalized or dismissed and protocols need to be followed or adults don’t know how to handle the tougher issues.
There are resources out there for these tough situations, but books and stories help in their own special ways by showing that standing up for yourself and speaking up is a really solid first step, but also, being believed can change everything.
To be told ‘Nothing happened’ because you have no proof doesn’t mean that nothing happened; in fact, that hurts more than something bigger happening.
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