It was all we had on our minds: to hit on girls when they least expected it. We were teenage boys in junior high; three friends looking for ways to spend the heated summer of my hometown.
One day while on our hunt for a possible best “catch”, and to escape the three o’clock scorching summer heat, we headed to the bazaar, and started walking around and practically lost track of time. After a while, we noticed this beautiful girl in a veil that was covering her school uniform, but not her jeans and shoes.
She was our own age it seemed, standing outside of a store, looking inside, as if she were expecting someone. The three of us got closer and surrounded her. One by one We got closer and came in contact with her veil, trying to feel her body. I even got so close I could feel her body temperature and its tenderness.
She started to show her feeling of uneasiness, by wrapping her veil tighter around her and covering herself more. But us boys didn’t care, and if we hadn’t been interrupted by the strong punches of a man old enough to be her father, we would have gone on doing what we were doing and harassing the poor girl.
But we were so scared that we scattered and ran away. In the midst of it all, between ducking and dodging the father’s punches, and running away like cowards, I stole a split of a second to look back, and saw her father slapping her so hard, she lost her balance and fell to the ground.
I felt ashamed of and disgusted by what my friends and I had done. I started running as fast as I could, and as soon as I was sure no one was around, I cried as hard as she had fallen to the ground. It was as if I felt her pain, crying for her innocence and the unforgettable audacity of that filthy moment, brought on her by three hormonal teenage boys, looking to kill a summer afternoon. A moment she will never forget.
And I cried like a three year old child, in that heated summer afternoon. And the girl in a veil, never escaped my memory.
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