Published May 8, 2025

Keeping Secrets

It was thirty years before I told my sister about the sexual assault.

Page 1. Panel 1: “Keeping Secrets, Judy Powell.” Judy, a young girl in a striped shirt with flyaway short blond hair and light skin, holds her hands over her mouth. Panel 2: “There were so many secrets in my family that…” Judy’s mother demands, “What do you know about this?” Judy looks startled. Panel 3: “I found it difficult to keep track of them all.” Judy’s mother: “She’s only nineteen… she can’t get married! You two are always on the phone to one another…” Judy looks away. Judy’s mother: “You knew about Anna and Marcus, didn’t you!”

Page 2. Panel 1: “I knew that Anna, my older sister, had a boyfriend but I hadn’t met him.” Anna’s mother calls, “It would be just like you to keep a secret of it!” Judy picks up the phone. Panel 2: Judy is on a call with Anna, a woman with glasses, a short brown bob with bangs, and light skin. Judy says, “How exciting. Why didn’t you tell me!” Anna replies, “I couldn’t say anything in case Ma found out.” Panel 3: Anna smiles widely, “You’ll love Marcus! We want a spring wedding…” Panel 4: Judy is swept up in the idea. Anna continues, “He lives in a cottage and has a boat…” Panel 5: Anna says, “I know how difficult it is for you living with Ma, you must see our home as your home.”

Page 3. Panel 1: Text on white background: “It was not long before I met Marcus. Ten years older than Anna with a steady job as an accountant he seemed ideal.” Panel 2: Judy approaches a sunny brick house. Judy calls, “Hello!” “I eagerly accepted an invitation to stay with them.” Anna replies, “Welcome to our cottage!” Panel 3: Anna says, “If you do the painting, I’ll start lunch.” “Marcus and I were to decorate my bedroom.” Panel 4: Marcus, face out of frame, says, “I think you’d be a great sailor…I’ll take you out on my boat…” Judy excitedly says, “I’d love that!” Panel 5: Marcus, “Did you splatter me with paint?” Judy grins, “No…but I can!” Panel 6, Judy splashes Marcus with paint, Marcus calls out, “Whoa!”

Page 4. Panel 1: Text on white background: “That evening Anna and I cooked supper. The three of us sat up late chatting, laughing, and telling funny stories until I began to feel sleepy.” Panel 2: Anna says, “Night, night Judy. Sleep tight.” Panel 3: Text on white background: “I climbed into bed feeling happy and fortunate to have Anna as my sister and a fabulous soon-to-be brother in law.” Panel 4: “It didn’t seem odd that Marcus would come into my room…” Judy is tucked into bed. Marcus says, “Comfy in your bunk bed?” Panel 5: Marcus leans against the bunk bed, “My boat has two bunks…” Panel 6: Marcus says, “...next time you come I’ll show you.” A hand under covers. “I felt his hand slide up my leg.” Panel 7: Marcus off panel, “We could sail to Long Island and…” “I knew it was wrong for him to touch me there.” Panel 8: Marcus, “...stay overnight.” “...he was my friend, he was kind to me.” Panel 9: Judy in her bunk bed, in a now-empty room. “There was no one I could tell. No one would believe me.”

Page 5. Panel 1: A sailboat tilts in the wind. Panel 2: Text on white background: “Marcus kept his word and on my following visit the three of us spent a day on his boat.” Panel 3: Judy pulls at a rope on the deck of the boat. Panel 4: Text on white background: “I loved sailing but it wasn’t Anna’s idea of fun.” Panel 5: Judy is outside, crouching down to talk to Anna below deck. Judy says, “Anna, come and have a go on the helm, it’s great fun.” Anna is reading a book, “No thanks.” Panel 6: “For my next visit we planned another sailing trip and…” Anna says, “You two go without me. I’ve got work to do.” Panel 7: Judy and Marcus, his head still out of frame, wear lifejackets on the boat. “...this time it was going to be an overnight trip.” Panel 8: “Marcus and I were to sleep on the boat.”

Page 6. Panel 1: Text on white background: “I thought that the first time Marcus touched me was a one off but that night when I settled into my berth…” Panel 2: “...he climbed into bed next to me…” A boat at night. Panel 3: “...lit his pipe and started to chat about out day.” A hand holding a pipe. Panel 4: “When I looked down I saw his erect penis…” Close on Judy’s face, more shocked than afraid. Panel 5: “...casually he asked me to hold it.” Panel 6: Judy covers her face with her hands. Panel 7: White text on black background: “However hard I try I can’t remember what happened next.” Panel 8: Judy laying down in bed, looking down. A hand with a coffee cup in the foreground. Panel 9: White text on black background: “I spent other weekends on Marcus’s boat. I accepted the abuse because I thought he was my friend.”

Page 7. Panel 1, the outside of a house, Judy’s mother’s indistinct form through the window. She yells, “No!” “I was at art school when Anna wrote to Ma.” Panel 2: Judy’s mom, at her phone, “Anna’s left Marcus…they’ve only been married four years!” “Anna hadn’t told me that she’d left Marcus for another man.” Panel 3: Judy’s mom says, “...what about her vows…” Panel 4: Judy’s mom says, “...and all that money we spent on her wedding…” Judy looks down. Panel 5: Judy’s mom says, “How could she do this to Marcus?” Judy looks up, with growing irritation. Panel 6: Judy’s mom says, “He’s such a good man!” Judy squeezes her eyes shut. Panel 7: Text on white background: “It took me thirty years before I broke my silence and told Anna about Marcus.”

Page 8. Panel 1: Text on white background: “I was on a family holiday with Anna: we both had our own children. It should have been fun but there was a sadness about her.” Panel 2: A house seen from outside at night. Outside, swimsuits are drying on a line. Pool toys and tennis rackets are scattered on the patio. The windows of the house are lit up. Two people sit at a table inside. Anna, at the table, says, “Sigh…having children has ruined my life…” Judy says, “It would have been worse if you’d stayed with Marcus…” Panel 3: “I thought that by telling her about Marcus she…” Judy says, “...You know he sexually abused me…” Panel 4: “...would see that he was a bad man…” Anna says, “What??!!” Panel 5: “...that she’d made the right decision to leave him…” Anna holds up her hand, saying, “No!” Panel 6: “...and that I was fine about it.” Anna scowls, “No. No. You must be lying!” Panel 7: Judy faces away from the reader. Anna has turned away from her. Panel 8: Text on a white background: “Anna never mentioned our conversation again but things between us had changed.”

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