I hadn’t had anything to drink, but even so, I was afraid of tripping because of the brick, my heels, the tiredness of my feet. I also realized it had been a mistake not to bring a jacket. It was an unusually warm fall night, but the temperature had turned chilly over the last several hours, and I had to hug myself for warmth. I was about a block away from my dorm entrance when I became aware of a rumbling sound, unusually close to the sidewalk, then the honk of a horn.

I kept walking, figuring the noise had nothing to do with me. But as I got closer to my house and the street got quieter, I began to hear yelling from several young men.

“Turn around!” I heard one of the voices say.

I paused and swiveled my head in their direction, where I saw figures so dimly lit they looked like shadows, crawling by in a giant, early-model American car.

“Hey, beautiful!” someone from inside yelled.

“Come ride with us!” another said. I smiled and shook my head as I rested a hand on my cheek.

“Not tonight,” I replied, my voice suddenly breathy and high. I observed my thickened eyelashes bat before I turned around.

It was only when I started walking again that I felt the sting of fear. I consciously pieced together what my instinct had already computed, that these young men had mistaken me for a woman, and I played my part to appease them. I also became aware that if one of these men had decided to get out of the car and examine me more closely, they would realize the mistake they’d made, and that this would make them angry, maybe angry enough to use their fists, and that it would be my body and not just my heels against the bricks. A deep part of me knew that running might incite them to chase me, and the safest choice was to walk at an even pace.

I was just half a block away now, and instead of their shouts, my mind tuned in to the outlines of my world, the rectangles on the ground that were barely red in the darkness of that hour, the thick white lines of a crosswalk in the distance. Lucy had lent me a black beaded clutch, and when I finally got to my dorm entrance, I fumbled for the clasp before I was able to fish out my keys, the ones I had a hard time getting in the keyhole because of my weak eyes. I had learned to unlock the door by feel rather than sight.