I’m still shivering as I sit here, in the Observer headquarters, smoking a cigarette and making up my mind writing a story that I was told when I was exploring the suburbs of the town, an area that is called Devils Pocket. A name that says a lot, actually. The area consists in a dreary motel, a fallout shelter turned into a whiskey bar, called the Coyote, another bar, and very close to that area there is a barn, which could look romantic if it wasn’t located in such a wrecked place. And it is in this area that has been consumed one of the most revolting crimes I had the occasion to hear about, of which I will tell now.
The facts are these: 4 days ago, considering the date of this article the 1st September, a young girl, whose name will not be mentioned, former tenant of a Motel nearby, was assaulted and reduced powerless, after her head being crushed against the concrete corner of the wall of her motel, by a man whose face was disguised by a face of a pig.. “It wasn’t some kind of mask.. I think it was an actual pigs head.” she reports. The girl also reports that, after the pig faced man removed her few, cheap although decent clothes, which she will not be able to retrieve even after reporting the fact to the police, and reduced her senseless, she was led to the barn nearby, a deduction made plausible by the fact that when she woke up, with barbed wire in her lips and cuffs at her wrists, the man was still there. And it was on those very hay bales, on which she was laying naked, that the pig faced man raped her, until she loses her senses again, drenched in blood that was still visible at the time of the interview. With nerves still shaking, she adds that the pig face man spoke about other animal friends of his that may pay a visit in her motel room.. and this warning, together with the fact that police inquiry seems to be late to give results, made her think that she should speak out.
I don’t see any reason to doubt of this story, not only because the multiple bruises and scars on her body seemed compatible with what happened, but also because she does not have anything to gain from telling such facts. Her life is now reduced to crumbles, she lost her job for which having a smooth body was crucial, and she lives constantly with the fear of being raped again.
I write these lines, not only because the girl had the courage to tell this story for the benefit of the other citizens of Hathian, but also because it seems to me, that this is an example of the fact that, in this town, those to whom life has never gifted anything, are also those who see their rights as human being, before as persons, stripped away from them. I hope I am wrong.
