Strength in Sisters

A while back, I was working on a writing prompt for my writer's group: "She stood there just as shell shocked as I had been. Then, she went for the gun on the wall." The short story that resulted from my chosen prompt was a story of three sisters supporting each other through a hard time. It was partially inspired by the relationship that I have with my three sisters. 

Oh the shenanigans we have gotten
into over the years.

I never shared it with my writer's group because I worried the subject matter might hurt one of the people in my group... then I realized how stupid that was. Art is supposed to invoke feelings in the viewer. 

So, I've decided to share it with you all.

She stood there just as shell shocked as I had been. Then, she went for the gun on the wall. “Nobody messes with our family!”

I beat her to the old pump Remington shotgun that had belonged to our father. I grabbed it and held it against my chest as I turned my back to the furious woman trying to snatch it out of my hands. I’ve never been so thankful that I kept it unloaded. “Ruth, calm down and listen to the rest of the story.”

“I don’t need to hear the rest of it!” Ruth grabbed the stock just behind the trigger guard and I twisted to keep it out of her hands. “Esther! Look at her face! That man has to pay!”

“I did look at her face!” I turned and put a hand against Ruth’s chest while I extended the arm that held the shotgun in the opposite direction. “You need to hear the rest of her story!”

Ruth snarled at me but finally calmed enough to listen. She tossed her honey-brown hair back over her shoulder. “Alright Miriam, what happened?”

Miriam glanced up at Ruth from her seat on the couch, an ice pack pressed to the left side of her face and a paper towel under her nose to staunch the bleeding.

Our baby sister had always been the beauty of the family, even though she had been sporting more makeup than necessary for the last couple of months. She was also the rebellious one.

Ruth and I had started quietly discussing Miriam’s condition when the cake make-up appeared, but we didn’t want to approach her with false allegations and risk losing her. The whole family knew Sid, her husband, was a jerk. Had known since they started dating, but there was no talking Miriam out of it. We all silently agreed to handle them with kid gloves and keep a close eye on the couple.

I wish to God we had at least tried talking to her. Then maybe this all wouldn’t have happened.

Or it could have sent her away from us forever.

Miriam and Sid celebrated their first wedding anniversary two months ago. Two days later, Miriam met me for lunch wearing a sweatshirt in August and heavy concealer that didn’t quite cover the shadow under her eye. I asked her about it and she brushed me off with a story about tripping and how clumsy she was.

Miriam was a lot of things, but clumsy was not one of them. For heaven’s sake, the woman had taken ballet for fifteen years. She could probably walk a tightrope en pointe with no problem.

I recruited big sister, Ruth, to help me find out what was going on. We “kidnapped” Miriam from work one day and had a sister day full of pedicures and mimosas. After a few drinks, we brought up our suspicions and Miriam denied everything. At one point, Ruth had jerked up Miriam’s sleeve to reveal nasty bruises that looked suspiciously like fingerprints. Ruth and I finding the proof only pissed Miriam off and she stormed out of the spa. She hadn’t talked to either of us, nor anybody else in the family, since.

We probably should have just called the cops, but the prospect of catching the bastard in the act was a little too appealing to pass up, not that we would have known what to do if we caught him. Plus, too many years of watching cop shows had me wanting to do a few stakeouts of my own. They are not as much fun as one would think, but it did let Ruth and I catch up.

We never caught Sid hitting our sister, but we did see him spending far more time at the bar than was necessary and a whole lot of drunk driving. Ruth suggested we ram him and call the cops so they could throw his ass in jail for DUI but we were in my car at the time. It might not be much to look at, but it was the only one I had.

Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised when I found Miriam at my door a few hours before. She was in tears, one eye nearly swollen shut, blood running out of her nose, bruises and scrapes everywhere, clothes and hair disheveled. If I hadn’t known better, I would have said she had been in a car accident. I got her cleaned up a bit and settled on the couch with an ice pack, then called for reinforcements.

“Ruth, sit down. You look like you’re going to eat her.” I put the shotgun back on the wall, then plopped down next to Miriam on the couch and pointed to the chair on her other side. Ruth rubbed her face, then complied.

Ruth took a big breath. “Miriam, what happened?”

“I left him.”

I have never seen such a beautiful smile from such a mess as I saw on my little sister’s face at that moment.

Ruth collapsed back against the chair. “About freaking time! But what happened?” She pointed at Miriam’s injuries.

Miriam checked to see that her nose had stopped bleeding and put the paper towel carefully on the coffee table with a shrug. “I missed you guys so much. I decided you were more important that my pride-”

“Damn straight we are!”

“Ruth.” I shook my head and nodded at Miriam. Ruth just shrugged.

Miriam smiled, even though tears were welling up in the eye I could see. “So I was packing a bag to come spend the weekend. I was going to call you both from the car to see if you wanted to go to a spa or a B&B or just have a slumber party all weekend at one of your houses. Sid came home early from work and saw me packing. He thought I was leaving for good and wouldn’t listen to reason. He’s never been this bad.” Miriam grabbed my hand then reached for Ruth’s. “Please, believe me, he has never been this bad.”

“Don’t defend him!” Ruth barked.

Miriam shook her head. “I’m not. I just feel so stupid. I swore growing up I would never be in a relationship like this, especially after watching Aunt Phoebe suffering, but after he hit me the first time, I was so embarrassed. I should have known better. I should have walked away that first time, but I couldn’t. Esther, I wanted so much to tell you the first time you asked. I just… I couldn’t.”

Ruth sighed and took Miriam’s hand in both of hers. “How did you get away?”

“I asked myself what my big sisters would do.” Miriam smiled through her tears.

I laughed. “Considering we just brawled over the shotgun, I am seriously hoping you didn’t shook him.”

“Why not? Bastard deserves to be shot.”

I shook my head. “Ruth, we don’t want Miriam to have to deal with the legal crap of shooting him.”

“Open and shut case if he’s dead.”

“Ruth!”

“Anyway,” Miriam interrupted. “He had me by the throat against the wall so I kneed him in the junk as hard as I could.”

“Atta girl!” Ruth cheered. I wrapped an arm around Miriam and squeezed.

“He let me go and I ran for the door. He grabbed my arm to stop me so I grabbed the first thing I could get my hand on. The baseball bat he keeps next to the door.” Ruth and I both cringed while Miriam chuckled quietly. “He’s going to have a headache when he wakes up.”

“I’m proud of you.” I kissed Miriam’s temple. Ruth reached over and pulled Miriam into her arms for a long moment. “We have to take you to the police-”

“No!” Miriam pulled away from Ruth and stared at me in shock.

“I agree with Esther.” Ruth stood and put her hands on her hips.

“Why?”

“If Sid files assault charges against you, it won’t look good if you didn’t report what he did to you. You need to go in and give them your statement. Tell them what you did and file charges of your own.”

“We should probably get a restraining order against the bastard, too, not that it’ll do much good if he’s determined, but sometimes it scares people off,” Ruth added. “A gun works better.”

I rolled my eyes at her gun comment but nodded my agreement anyway. “Then, we need to call Aunt Leah and start getting you a divorce.” I stood and pulled Miriam up beside me.

“Maybe we should call Aunt Leah on our way and have her meet us at the police station.” Ruth crossed her arms and eyes Miriam. “Too bad we don’t have pictures from before you got cleaned up.”

I grinned and held up my phone. “Oh, but we do.”

“You took pictures of me?!” Miriam screeched.

“You can thank me later.” I slung my purse strap over my head and headed for the door. “Ruth, you driving or am I?”

Ruth followed me across my front porch and down the stairs. “I will. Your POS is a death trap and I think Miriam has been traumatized enough for today.”

“Hey!” I swatted her with the back of my head.

“I love you guys.” Ruth and I turned to see Miriam standing at the top of the porch steps with tears in her eyes. She slowly descended and stopped between us. “I just- I love you. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to leave him if I didn’t have two strong sisters to turn to.”

Ruth and I pulled her in for a group hug, tears running down each of our cheeks.

“I don’t know how much longer we would’ve been able to leave you with him before doing something drastic.” Ruth’s voice was thick with tears.

“A week,” I mumbled through my own tears. “I had next Friday circled in my calendar. If you wouldn’t leave on your own, I was coming to get you even if I had to drug you and carry you out of that house myself.”

“Thank you for saving me.” Miriam loosened her hold on us.

I sniffed and wiped at my cheeks with the heels of my hands. “You saved yourself, baby sister. We’re just making sure you stay that way.”