My eyes

I was seven years old when I was first warned about becoming a whore. It was one of the few times I spent time with my dad, which I remember vividly because he scared the crap out of me.

We were watching the movie Return to the Blue Lagoon and Lilly was bewildered when she noticed blood between her legs. I was too young to understand what was going on, so I asked my dad. He said, “Women are filthy whores and filled with filthy blood, so they have to get rid of it every month.”

I was so stunned that I fell into an eerie silence. I imagined myself running out of blood, just skin and bones. "Am I a woman, Dad?"

My dad took a long gulp from his soft drink rum, "Someday."

My eyes blurred with tears as I thought about the horror of losing all my blood, "How can I have more blood?"

Dad smiled and hugged me. The smell of alcohol on his breath was always a consolation to me, “You'll have a little girl…just don't be a whore.”

I squeezed my dad, "I won't!" Leaning back, I looked into his d