Things Victims See

Dear Reader,

People who can sense danger coming, are usually the ones who have experienced the danger before.

The bond between my husband and his little sister was something truly special.

To say he loved her would be an understatement; he’d do absolutely anything for her.

She looked just like my husband. When I tried to hook her up with one of my ‘guy’ friends, he asked me to show him a picture of her; and immediately thought they were twins. She hated that I did that. Her exact words were, “You have to show guys pictures of me by myself! Not with my brother! Otherwise, they’ll think I look like a dude!”

She was into some really strange things, I’ll let you use your imagination but in reality, she was a really sweet girl.

I can remember it being 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, and his phone would ring. It’d be her. Crying on the other line. Wanting him to come get her. And like clockwork, he’d get up and go sit with her for an hour or so until she felt better.

He was a great big brother.

Eventually, he asked me if she could come live with us for a few weeks, and I told him yes.

We lived in a studio at this time, so the couch is where she slept every night. I remember she was trying to obey the few house rules her brother set out for her. His rules were pretty simple and could be summed up in 4 words: Don’t Be A Slob.

One morning, I was up cleaning while dinner was in the oven, and both of them were still sleeping. (I worked nights, so every morning I’d wake up early to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hadn’t quite mastered the fine art of meal prepping yet Lol. ) I had my earbuds in my ears, while I moved about so I wouldn’t disturb them.

While standing back to see if I missed any spots on the bathroom floor, I felt a tap on my shoulder. To my surprise, it was my sister in law. Removing my buds, she asked me, “What are you doin’? And what’s that smell?”

“Does it smell…good?”, I asked, being a bit self-conscious about my own cooking.

“Yea, is that breakfast?”, she answered.

“No, that’s dinner for tonight! Breakfast is on the counter and the pie is for dinner”, I said relieved. I was really sensitive about my cooking then, always needed feedback on what I could’ve done better. “Oh, and wait a few minutes before going to the bathroom please. The floors are still wet.”, I said, reminding myself of this fact as well.

“Well aren’t you Miss Homemaker?”, she replied sarcastically.

“Well…”, trying to think of a good comeback. “I guess you could say that”, I replied. (Epic fail at the comeback.)

“He doesn’t make you do this, does he?”, she inquired.

“Listen, it’s not like he’s going to cook for himself, right? I cook to keep him from going out and spending money on something we already have.”

“No, I’m not talking about the cooking. I’m talking about all of this cleaning you’re doing. I saw you doing this yesterday too. What’s up with that?”

“Oh, well yea, that’s mostly him. I’d probably clean more on a weekly basis, not daily. I do it to make him happy”, I grinned.

“That’s some stuff daddy used to do to mom!”

“I’m confused. What do you mean?”

“Dad used to do the same [expletive] to mom! Used to make her do all this stuff around the house and make her work so hard, while he did nothing!”

I froze. Her words confused me to no end!

At this moment in our marriage, my husband was still sugary sweet to me. I had no idea what she was talking about. There was no way she could be trying to put me in the same group as her mother!? We were happy!!?

She hopped back onto the couch and just stared at me.

“Don’t let him do that to you.”

“Do what?”

“Do what Dad did to mom.”

“And what exactly was that?”, completely oblivious to the type of abuse she suffered.

“Ask him.”

Signed,

Victims see things you don’t