She had always been a good daughter. Did what she was told. Did not get drunk in public. Was an honors student though the prizes seemed to go to others. She had few friends in high school but college changed things. She still lived at home, but now her life was filled with new ideas and interesting people. People who wanted change, who wanted a better, fairer world. A world where women walked equally with men.
She was admitted to the school of engineering where she was respected for her abrupt and searching mind. Her lovers were all drawn to the combination of her doll like face and merciless brain.
One day her father told her that she must attend a family dinner. She said that she had a date. When he insisted she come to the dinner and she again refused he struck her, and when she still refused he struck her again.
Next morning she pulled her lovely hair into a bun on the top of her head, exposing the bruises she had so often concealed. She kept the table between herself and her father.
``You live in my house, it is my right to beat you when you disobey. Now you dishonor me by exposing those marks. Have you no shame?'' ``Have you no shame?'' she answered.
In the labs and lecture halls, in the library and book shop and cafeteria she said when asked ``My father beat me. He says it is his right.''
She found a job that fit her schedule, took out more loans and found a place to live. But she missed so much of home. The comfort food, the endless talk. She tried to get her two young sisters to join her, but they just giggled and turned away.