See Part 1 for warnings and info...
Copyright © 2013 Geonn Cannon
Part VI
Kathryn let Eva drive her most of the way home, asking to be dropped off a block away. She kissed Eva goodbye and walked the rest of the way. She got home after dark and heated up a frozen dinner in the microwave. She looked down at her wedding ring as the dinner rotated on its little tray. The years it had spent on her hand didn't hold a candle to the few hours it had been on Eva's. It was Eva's ring now, and Kathryn was just wearing it to keep up appearances. No... she was wearing it to remember those hours when it had been the only thing Eva was wearing.
Joseph came into the kitchen, looked at the microwave first and then at her. Kathryn put her hands on the counter and waited for him to speak first.
"More pictures, huh?"
"Do you know what the blue hour is? It's that time at dawn and twilight when the sun is at just the right angle to make the sky look like a work of art. It's still bright enough to see, but dark enough that windows are lit up and buildings are shining. That's why I've been out so much at sunset. I want to capture that in my pictures."
"Well, where are you the rest of the time?"
"Developing the pictures. Working on my technique."
He sighed and looked at the microwave again. "And did you forget how to cook?"
She resisted the urge to snap at him. She remembered how powerful she'd felt with a cock between her legs, all those times Joseph had crawled on top of her and pounded her into the bed... suddenly she felt armed to stand against him.
"Maybe I have better things to do than stand over a stove for three hours making a meal you won't appreciate. This will give you the same amount of sustenance but I don't have to suffer as much for it."
He laughed cruelly. "Oh, yeah, you're really suffering, Kathryn. I can't imagine how hard it must be to sit around taking little pictures all day. You have it so rough, doll. Why don't you go sit on the couch and have some Ben & Jerrys and I'll be in there to fan you with fucking... ostrich feathers or something."
Kathryn bowed her head and looked at her shoes. The meek side of her, the side that had been cultivated for thirty years, tried to see his point. All the money she had, she'd gotten from him. The clothes on her back, the money to have her hair done, even the photography class... all the expenses came from his paycheck. But goddamn it - this coming from the part of her that earned a voice the moment she kissed Eva - hadn't she earned it back in spades? Keeping up his house, maintaining him for the length of their marriage? When did housewife become a pejorative title?
"I'm not a child," she said quietly. "And I'm not some lazy whore you keep around so you have something to fuck."
"What is with this language? I didn't marry a damned sailor."
Kathryn bit the inside of her cheek as the microwave beeped. Joseph ignored it. She stepped past him, opened the microwave and took it out. The tray was almost too hot to touch, but she ignored that as she held it out to him.
"Do you want this?"
"I want my wife to cook me dinner. That, that's... reheated shit."
"Fine." She tossed the tray upside down into the sink. "Make yourself a sandwich."
She started past him and he grabbed her arm just above the elbow. "What the hell has gotten into you?"
EVA. "You're hurting me."
He tightened his grip and Kathryn's resolve wavered. She opened her mouth in a silent gasp as his fingers dug in.
"You want to act like the poor put-upon princess? Poor pitiful you?" He twisted and this time a sound squeaked out of Kathryn's throat. She closed her eyes as his fingers tightened. "You're going to stop this staying out all day, acting like a little bitch bullshit right now. I'm your husband, and I provide a pretty fucking good life for you. If you don't respect that, I'll refresh your memory. Got me?"
"Yes." She hated the word as it came out of her mouth, but it caused him to let go of her arm. He looked at the frozen dinner in the sink and then swatted her hard on the ass. She cringed as he pointed at the stove.
"Dinner. It's already late, so make it good. I'm hungry."
She realized she had nothing to gain by fighting at this point, so she nodded and brushed her hair out of her face. He walked back into the living room, and Kathryn slowly moved to get the pot from the cabinet. As she filled it with water she rolled up the sleeve of her sweater to examine the soft flesh of her upper arm. The spot where Joseph grabbed her was bright red, and she was ashamed to know it would bruise by the next time she saw Eva. How would she explain it? She tugged the sleeve back into place and focused on the dinner.
#
Kathryn ignored what happened behind their closed bedroom door that night. Eva's good works, her tremendous gift, was taken away from her in the space of a few humiliating minutes. In the end, she went to sleep quickly and hoped she could convince herself it had been a dream.
#
She shopped for groceries on Thursday morning, as she always did. Joseph always left for work late on Thursday, so she was able to use his truck to get to the store and back. He was in the living room when she got home and she remained silent as she transferred the groceries from the bags to the freezer. She was nearly done, rearranging the cereal boxes from newest to least-full, when Joseph came into the kitchen.
"I seem to keep finding you in here. And yet, you never seem to be cooking me dinner anymore."
She didn't respond, didn't even offer a fake smile.
"You didn't say hi when you came in."
"Hi."
He sighed. "I have to tell you, Kathryn, this new attitude of yours? I'm not a fan. I am not a fan of it one bit. I thought you learned your lesson last night."
"Tell me you like that, bitch." She cringed as his voice echoed in her head. "Sorry. I'm just... sore."
"Well, I get the feeling things are going to be getting back to normal around here real soon. It's just a little rough patch, right? Sweetheart?"
"Right." She didn't know how much longer she could bear to be in the same house as this man. How had she managed for so long?
"Good. Excellent."
He took a beer from the fridge and left her alone again. She sighed and rubbed her arms as if she'd felt a chill, put aside the grocery bags for recycling, and went into the dining room. She wanted to take some pictures to calm her soul, but the camera bag wasn't by the back door where she'd left it. She looked around in case it had been kicked out of the way, but it was too big to be hidden. She went into the living room and looked at the couch, at her chair. She knew it wasn't in the truck. She knew she hadn't left it in Eva's truck, because she remembered it bumping her hip when she'd walked the remaining distance home.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't find my camera."
"Oh. I gave that to Michael."
It took her a moment to realize what he'd said. "You what?"
"He's leaving on that big trip today. South America? He had this puny little thing, so I said he could take yours."
"Get it back."
"I can't get it back. He's on his way to the airport."
Kathryn's heart pounded. "How could you give away my camera?"
"My camera," he said. "Paid for it. Let you use it. But my friend needed it more. It's South America, Kathryn. I'm sure you've taken a lot of nice pictures of sunsets and birds and shit, but I think Michael can get a little more use out of it than you were."
Her mind was stuck in a loop. "How could you do that to me?"
He finally looked at her, letting the anger fill his expression. "What did I do to you? It was my camera, Kathryn."
"I needed that for my class. There are four weeks left. Eight classes. How am I supposed to participate or do my assignments without a camera?"
"Yeah. About that class... I don't think you should go anymore."
"You don't get to decide that!"
He stood up. "I paid for them, so yeah. I do. I don't like the element you're meeting there. They're changing you into some bitchy little sulky girl I don't know. And the language, my God. In our whole marriage I've heard you curse maybe twice. Now it's fuck this and bullshit that. I'm sure it's that Gomez or Lopez girl you've been hanging around with. I'm done with it, Kathryn. I want my wife back. So no more camera, no more photography class."
"How dare you."
"What did I do?"
Her eyes were full of tears. "That class... you have no idea what that class meant to me. And you just took it away without even telling me. How could you do something so cruel?"
"I'm just trying to get my wife back."
"I have news for you, Joe. Your wife is dead." She started for the door, but he grabbed her again. The same arm, the same spot, and his fingers dug into the bruise that was already blooming. She cried out, arching away from him like a startled animal, but he didn't let up his grip. "Stop, please, ow... ow."
"This talking-back bullshit is going to stop right now."
She tried to pull her arm away, but she couldn't get free. Her other arm suddenly came up, her hand balled into a fist she didn't remember making, and she hit him in the side of the head. He was so startled that he let her go and stumbled back a step. Kathryn covered her arm, which hurt so badly she thought she might be bleeding, and retreated backwards so she wouldn't have to turn her back on him.
"Don't touch me. Don't touch me ever again, you son of a bitch."
She left the house and considered taking his truck, since she still had the keys, but even in her anger and hurt she couldn't bring herself to do that. She fished the keys out of her pocket and tossed them onto the hood as she followed the driveway down to the sidewalk. Still clutching her hurt arm, her purse still in the house, she started walking.
Eva lived five miles away and, thought Kathryn felt she could have walked that distance, she didn't want to fall into her lover's arms as a sobbing, inconsolable mess. She didn't have the strength to face Eva when her arm was still throbbing where her husband had hurt her. And, to be completely honest with herself, she didn't want to be in Eva's house while she was still sore from Joseph's little retribution-sex the night before. He'd never been so rough with her, had never done... some of the more degrading things he'd done... and her body was still protesting its misuse hours later.
She walked to the library and wandered the stacks, found a book of classic artwork that she could look at without forcing her mind to process words, and whiled away the day. She never felt hungry for lunch, so when she looked up and saw it was mid-afternoon she was startled. She put the book back where she'd found it and left the library.
She walked to the community center, the muscles in her thighs burning from all the walking she'd done. But a part of her felt like it was waking up and remembering the way things had been before Joe. She was free to do whatever she wanted. She didn't have to worry about dinner or schedules. Walking from place to place took longer, but she could make her own schedule.
She arrived early, taking a seat on the bench where she usually waited for Joe to pick her up. Other people from her class soon started to arrive, and they greeted her kindly. She realized she barely knew any of their names, although she did recognize most of them. How could they be so easily forgotten when Eva had so quickly such an enduring part of her life? She was still pondering the question when Eva's truck appeared and her heart quickened. She stood and waited as Eva crossed the parking lot, smiling the whole way.
"Hey, you."
"Hi."
"Where's your camera?"
"Joseph gave it away." The tears she thought she'd quashed in the library came back now, and she put the back of her hand against her lips to hold back a sob. Eva's face showed her confusion mixed with anger, and she put a hand on Kathryn's shoulder to guide her into the atrium of the community center.
"What do you mean he gave it away?"
Kathryn explained his deluded reasoning, watching as Eva became angrier with every word. When Kathryn said he'd quit paying for the classes, Eva shook her head.
"No, we all paid upfront. Remember? Non-refundable. The last eight classes are paid for. He can't keep you from attending them."
"I think he can."
"No. He can't."
"He can ." She jerked up the sleeve of her sweater to expose the mottled, ugly bruise spreading above her elbow.
Eva just stared at it, completely still as if the moment had been frozen in time. After ten seconds of absolute stillness and silence, Eva looked into Kathryn's eyes.
"He hurt you."
"I'm fi--"
" He hurt you. " It was a hiss, and tears appeared in Eva's eyes. She was suddenly a different person, dark and vengeful. Kathryn had never felt anything but safe with Eva, but suddenly she could see that she had a dark side. Unlike Joseph, she knew that Eva would never turn that dark side on her. This was a power reserved for those who dared hurt the ones Eva cared about. This was a mother lifting a car to protect her child, this was a righteous anger.
An anger that Kathryn dissipated by touching her cheek.
"I'm going to miss you."
Eva gasped as if she had been pinched. "No. Just because we're losing the class... fuck the class. This isn't about the class anymore, Kathryn."
"It was my only reason for being out of the house so much."
"Then we'll start a book club, or we'll do neighborhood watch. Please, Kathryn. Don't. He took your camera, don't let him take me, too."
Kathryn closed her eyes. "I don't have a choice."
"Oh, my heart." Eva collapsed against her and Kathryn embraced her.
"My heart," Kathryn whispered into her hair.
They held each other for a long moment, clinging to each other for dear life until finally Kathryn pulled away. She used both hands to push Eva's hair back, then bent down and kissed her lips. It was their first kiss in public, and they both felt the importance of that fact as they pressed against each other. They both decided that the world around them didn't matter as much as the woman right in front of her.
"Where does he think you are right now?"
"I don't know. I don't care."
Eva took her hand. "Come home with me."
"But the class... it's non-refundable." She chuckled as she followed Eva out into the parking lot, half-jogging back to her truck. "Each class costs fifteen dollars."
Eva smiled back at her. "You're worth the expense."
Kathryn climbed into the passenger side of Eva's truck and dropped down the sun visor to check how she looked. Her hair was windswept, but luckily she hadn't put on much makeup that morning. She figured she'd have looked like Alice Cooper if she had. She flattened her fingers on her cheeks and pulled down, trying to erase all the tears she'd shed that day as Eva got behind the wheel and started the engine. She reached out and took Kathryn's hand, and she kissed the back of it before she put the truck in gear and backed out of the spot.
#
"We don't have to do this."
"If you want it later and don't have it, there's no way to go back in time. This way we'll have it if you decide to do something."
They were in her living room. Kathryn was seated on the couch with her sleeve rolled up and her arm held out under the end table's lamp. Eva was hunched over her with the camera to her eyes, and she snapped another picture of the bruise. It was easy to distinctly make out the shape of Joseph's thumb and forefinger on the pale flesh, and Eva felt sickened even as she snapped the third photo.
"I want evidence of what he did to you, just in case."
Kathryn nodded slowly. "I understand. I just don't see myself doing anything legal about it. I mean, a police report and..." She sighed. "I can't even bring myself to divorce him."
"Did you ever see him hurting you? Did you ever imagine he would leave a bruise like that on your arm?"
Kathryn looked down at the purple and yellow blob. "He fucked me in the ass last night."
"What?"
She shook her head, wishing she hadn't said it. "We had a fight. I emasculated him a little, I guess. So he..." She shrugged. "Never mind."
Eva knelt in front of her. "Kathryn, he raped you."
"He didn't. We're married. He just--"
"He did something you didn't want and he hurt you to get it. What would you call that?"
Kathryn looked at her. "He's my husband."
"Maybe he shouldn't be anymore."
Kathryn closed her eyes and Eva touched her cheek. She was about to say something else when someone pounded on the front door so suddenly that she jumped. Kathryn frowned.
"Everyone knows I have class right now," she muttered. She stood and went to the door, peeking through the window to see who it was. "Oh, fuck."
"What? Who is it?"
"It's Joe."
Kathryn shot to her feet, her heart feeling paralyzed in her chest. Eva stepped back from the door and took out her phone. She held it in her hand as she spoke.
"Mr. Tramonto, I don't want you on my property."
"You have my wife in there. I'm not leaving without her."
"How did you find her here?"
"I drove to that damn community center to apologize. I knew she'd go there for her damn class. I bought her a new fucking camera. And then I saw her kissing you ." He pounded the flat of his hand against the door so hard that both women jumped. "How long have you been fucking my wife ?"
Kathryn took out her phone and stared at the screen. 911, three little numbers. Joseph shouted a horrible, ugly word at the door, and then the pounding stopped.
"Is he leaving?"
"He's pacing around on the porch." She turned and saw the phone in Kathryn's hand. "Did you call 911?"
"No. I... should I? Of course I should..."
The door suddenly slammed open, the jam splintering and showering Eva's back with broken shards of wood. She ducked and covered her head as Joseph came inside. He was holding a hammer, most likely retrieved from the back of his truck, and he dropped it as he stepped over the threshold. Eva spun to face him and he backhanded her. She hit the wall and slid down, lips parted in shock and pain as she dropped on her butt.
Joseph stepped over her and walked toward Kathryn. She was so terrified that she dropped the phone and began to back away from him.
"Joe... please."
"Gonna say it didn't mean anything? Huh? You fucking lesbian bitch..."
"Just let her go. Let her go..."
He ignored her and grabbed her arm, thankfully well away from the bruise. He twisted and she dropped to her knees, eyes closed as he loomed over her. "Everything I've given you, and this is how you repay me?" He stepped closer, still holding her arm as he closed his other hand around her throat. "I buy your food, your clothes, your makeup, everything. Maybe I ought to make you earn your air, too. Is that it? I don't give you enough? Well, how about breathing, bitch?" His hand tightened and Kathryn struggled for air.
Eva's voice filled the air, a primal cry of rage, and Joseph suddenly went stiff. His hands flexed and she twisted away from him, hitting her ass and scurrying away on her hands and knees like a crab. Joe slumped to the ground to reveal Eva standing behind him, chest heaving, eyes wide with disbelief. She was holding the hammer Joseph had brought in and a streak of red was splattered across the front of her shirt.
"What did you do," Kathryn gasped.
Eva looked at her. "He was going to kill you."
"He was going to kill you ," Kathryn said. "Are you okay?"
Kathryn looked at her husband's body. "Is he..."
"I don't know." She looked at the hammer and then tossed it. Suddenly she heard sirens and jumped. One of the neighbors must have heard the shouting and called the police. Suddenly panicked, she said, "We have to go."
"Go?" Kathryn got to her feet. "What..."
Eva grabbed her hand. "We have to leave before the police get here. This is Texas, my heart." Kathryn's head swam from the casual way Eva dropped the endearment, as if it was second-nature, but it was already swimming from the situation. "They're going to walk in and see this and they're going to sensationalize it. Lesbian Kills Lover's Husband in Jealous Rage. Honey, if we ever want to be together again, we have to go."
Kathryn considered the possibility for a moment. Just going, jumping into Eva's truck and driving away into the sunset. East to Louisiana, north to Oklahoma, west to New Mexico... it had to be a possibility. Just driving to a new life where no one knew either of them. Escaping into a world where she didn't have to label herself as anything other than Eva's lover. Eva would grow her hair out and straighten it; she bet it would make her look Hispanic if she did, and she was intrigued by the idea. And she could completely change her own look. Cut her hair... cut it extremely short. Joseph liked long hair so she kept it to the middle of her back, but now she could cut it all off. Wear it in a man's style, color it blonde.
She saw them, these two strangers, pulling up outside a gas station a hundred or two hundred miles away from home, getting something microwavable to eat, using the bathroom, refilling the tank and then finding the highway again. Sleeping in motels, making love without worrying about when she was expected to be home.
In her mind, in this brief fantasy that took all of two seconds to unfold, they ended up somewhere cold. Maine or the Pacific Northwest, a quiet island where everyone knew everyone else but minded their own business. She saw Eva at her age, a little gray at the temples with laugh lines around her mouth. She could see it so clearly, Eva at the window with the ocean outside, smiling when she saw Kathryn coming into the house.
The sirens were coming closer, and the blood was pooling around Joseph's head so much faster than she would have believed possible. She felt nauseated at the sight but forced the urge down, squeezing Eva's hand.
"I made Joseph give up his future. I won't let you give up your present."
Eva's face fell, but the tension faded from her body. She stepped closer and kissed Kathryn as if it was the last time, both of them knowing it very well could be. They had stepped apart before the police came through the broken door, and Eva put her hands over her head with the fingers spread. "I'm the one who hit him. It was me. I had to protect Kathryn from him."
A few of the cops moved down the hall to make sure the rest of the house was secure, and the one in the lead looked at the body before he holstered his weapon and stepped into the living room. He stared at Eva for a moment. "Ava?"
"Eva," she corrected. "Eva Alvarez. I work with the crime scene unit."
"I thought I recognized you." He looked at the body again, then at Kathryn. She was rubbing her throat with her hand, her sleeve still rolled up to show the day-old bruise above her elbow. He looked at Joseph and then finally back to Eva as if he'd just realized she was there. "Put your hands down, Ms. Alvarez."
She hesitated, but then did as he said.
EPILOGUE
They were taken to the police station in a detective's car, not handcuffed or separated but sitting in the backseat. There is an undeniable symbolism to being put in the backseat of a police car, even one that was unmarked. When they arrived they were taken to separate rooms to tell their stories. Kathryn simply told the truth, omitting anything sexual. She and Eva were friends who bonded over a mutual love of photography. Joseph became jealous of the time they spent together. They had argued, the arguments got worse, and then she'd retreated to Eva as a safe haven. He followed her and broke down her door. He attacked Eva, then attacked Kathryn, and Eva had done what she had to do.
Her throat was starting to hurt too much to speak by the time she was finished, something that only supported her truth. A police photographer - one of Eva's coworkers most likely - came into the room and took pictures of the bruise on her arm and the fresh marks on her throat. When she was alone with the female detective she quietly and nervously asked about the possibility of a rape exam. She was still hurting from the night before and she was starting to worry she'd been really hurt. The detective agreed to set it up.
Kathryn went to the hospital and, when she was brought back to the station, a new charge was added to Joseph's sheet. She found out from the detective that her story matched Eva's well enough that they were satisfied, and both stories meshed with what the neighbors had reported when they called 911. Eva had struck out not only to protect her friend, but in defense of her property. Joseph had been an intruder and Eva had every right to use whatever force she deemed necessary on him. The fact she'd done it with a weapon he brought onto the premises himself helped her cause.
By morning they were cleared of all charges. Eva had used necessary force to defend her home, an assertion supported by the fact she'd only struck him once. Kathryn had been in imminent danger and Eva did what was necessary. The morning paper was even going so far as to call her a hero for what she did.
They couldn't go back to Eva's house since it was a crime scene, and neither of them wanted to go back to the house Kathryn had shared with Joseph. Eva got them a hotel room, and they checked in a little after noon. Kathryn was exhausted from being up for nearly two days straight, and Eva tucked her into bed. She was asleep almost before the blanket was lifted to her shoulders.
When she woke, Eva was spooning her from behind. "Are you awake?" she whispered.
"Yeah."
Kathryn rolled to face her. She put her hand on Eva's face. Eva smiled and stroked Kathryn's hip. Kathryn pictured the future again. She saw herself, perhaps still with short blonde hair, coming out of Eva's darkroom. And Eva, with her curly hair pinned back, raising her head to look at the picture Kathryn had to show her. They conferred about it, whether or not the light was good enough for the newspaper. Ah, yes, in her fantasy she was a freelance photographer for the local paper. Popular, too. And in her fantasy Eva declared the photo a winner, and Kathryn paid for the critique with a kiss.
She noticed the light on Eva's face and looked over her shoulder at the window. "It's sunset," she whispered.
"Yes, it is." She tightened her grip on Kathryn's hands. "Do you have to go?"
Kathryn faced her again and smiled. "Not this time. Not ever again."
Eva smiled and kissed her lover, and Kathryn pressed closer to her.
The sun passed the horizon and the day ended with Kathryn in Eva's arms, and she knew in her soul that things were exactly as they were meant to be.
end
(Thank you for reading and for your continued support of my writing! Be sure to check out my website for more free stories, as well as links to buy my latest novels like The Rise and Fall of Radiation Canary, Silence Out Loud , and more!)