Nobody who has investigated the "Haven Monahan" story told by Jackie's friends had considered the possibility that he was the invention of one or more of those friends, right? That possibility hadn't occurred to anyone asking questions about Jackie's assault until I mentioned it? You're supposed to consider all possible explanations for everything connected with a crime, aren't you?
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Jackie had invented Haven Monahan, to try to convince Mr. Duffin to go out with her. Let's say that she also told her friends that her date for the night of September 28, 2012 was Mr. Monahan. Do you think that she might have been waiting for Mr. Duffin or one of her other friends to figure out that there was no Haven Monahan, and that she would have then laughingly confessed that he was her invention, with no harm done to anyone (except me, of course, at a distance, having gotten another joke made about my voyeurism problem), if her real date hadn't gotten her raped the night of September 28, 2012?
When the three friends went to meet Jackie after the assault, did she tell them that "Haven Monahan" had raped her, or did she just say that she was raped, or, with her Haven Monahan joke unexpectedly hitting against the serious fact of her being raped, did she not know how to tell her friends, at that time, that there was no Haven Monahan but that there was a real lifeguard who took her to the party and who was part of the sexual assault that happened at that party?
If her friends didn't take her being assaulted seriously, and Mr. Duffin was the only one of the three of them who had at least initially suggested that the police be called and she be taken to a hospital, that could be why, days later, in the aftermath of the rape, Jackie decided to write the "Haven Monahan" email to Mr. Duffin. Her motivation would be her total vulnerability, and her gratitude to Mr. Duffin for even having suggested, at first, that she seek medical care and police attention about the assault. If she had not known how to clarify to her friends who had raped her, but her friends had also not taken the rape seriously so that she, with her emotions in more of a tumult than ever before in her life, also had times when she treated herself as if the assault didn't matter, she might have overlooked the strangeness of "Haven Monahan" contacting Mr. Duffin days after the assault.
Although few people get to adulthood painlessly, there are people who are fortunate enough to grow into adulthood gradually. Then there are people who, at 18 or younger, have life experiences forced upon them that would be devastating for fully grown adults way past the age of 18. Perhaps Jackie didn't get much time to "put childish things away" (1 Corinthians 13:11) before she was forced to contend with one of the worst things that can ever happen to someone.
Copyright L. Kochman, April 7, 2015 @ 5:33 a.m./addition @ 5:50 a.m.
