I had an accident on my bike, skidded on the gravel. I had a boys bike frame so the middle bar was raised with the gears in the middle. When I fell the gears hit into my vagina. It was painful. I was screaming lying on the road. A neighbour carried me home.

My mother made me lie on the bed without any pants on. I was screaming and hysterical. Trying to cover myself with my hands and she was slapping them away. She said something like “look what youve done” or “you’ve done this yourself” . I didn’t know what I had done or what was wrong. That something looked bad. I thought I had done something really bad. I thought she could see what I had done or what my father had done. I thought everyone could see. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought something bad was going to happen because of what had happened. Kids from the neighbourhood were outside.

Nothing had really happened. It may have been an over reaction. But I was so upset. I couldn’t contain myself.