by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, originally published in the Massachusetts Review Spring 2006
As Brennan-Jobs shares, when she met Emily, she and her friend Cole, recognized each other at once, but both of them seemed startled. At one of their conversations, Emily told her that she had met Cole at a party in one of Harvard’s final clubs in which she had a few drinks there, but didn’t remember anything after that. The next day she went to the hospital and tested positive for the presence of Rohypnol—the date rape drug. Several people told her later that she and Cole had sex that night in the club in front of a group of people.
A WOMAN-I’D NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE-Stepped into the lift with us. Her hair was dark, pixie cut around a pretty face with a delicate, freckled nose. She and my friend, Cole, recognized each other at once. Both seemed startled. He had forgotten her name but remembered when she told him-Emily.
As the lift dropped from the fourth floor, they spoke-mostly Emily spoke. Her voice was frail but insistent, reaching to him, engaging him, laughing when he didn’t laugh. I noticed she was English, and her accent rounded softly at the edges so it was difficult to hear the last part of each phrase. Her demureness seemed a form of humility, or a false humility.
