YOU CANNOT SEE MARIA GALLAGHER AT FIRST. ALL YOU hear are her words, spoken quickly, each one sounding as if it had taken the long way out of her—drenched in the deepest parts of her rage and pain. What you can see is the man, Senator Jeff Flake, looking down, looking away, looking anywhere but at Gallagher.
“I was sexually assaulted, and nobody believed me. I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you are going to ignore them,” Gallagher says to Flake, while she stands outside the elevator and he stands inside.
You can see Gallagher’s head now. “Don’t look away from me,” she says, desperation in her voice.…
