Fear found her. It hid in the daylight hours in the corners of her bedroom. As the sun set, the tentacles of fear would creep toward her as she huddled in the bed, naked as he demanded. By 10PM she was wrapped in the tentacles of fear, squeezing, always squeezing. Making it hard for her to breathe and causing her heart to pound. At times, when she could think clearly she wished it would squeeze her to death.

'Death, a blessed relief from this living nightmare.'

She could hear her mother's voice, "you are rushing into this, wait, get to know each other."

'If I had only listened.'

The glow-in-the-dark alarm clock numbers read 10:15PM. Anna was shaking from cold and fear. She laid under two hand-made quilts, gifts from her grandmother and her dad's green wool Army blanket. They did stay the chill of fear or the draft from the poorly insulated windows. Silent screams caught in her throat unable to pass the desert dryness of her mouth.

***************************

She recalled her delight when Paul told her he had a surprise for her. After dinner with her parents, he put a blind fold on her, which at the time she thought was romantic. They drove some distance and he helped her out of the car, up a walkway and a set of uneven stairs. He took his hand from her elbow and she could hear keys jingling. He assisted her through the door way.

Removing the blindfold with a flourish, he said, "Here is our new house."

Anna recognized it as the old Henderson Place. No one has lived in it for years. Anna's heart sank as she thought of all the work that was needed to make it their home. Anna instinctively knew that showing any negative reaction would be unacceptable to Paul.

"We can start from scratch and fix it up just the way we want."

"That's my girl." Paul said as he squeezed her shoulder just a little too hard.

******************************

Anna peeked at the clock 10:30PM. Anytime now Paul would be home.

"Please Lord let him be too drunk to make it up the stairs."

The grip of fear was intensifying. She could hardly breathe and it felt like the bedroom walls were closing in on her.

She flashed back to the horror of the nights he made it up the stairs. He smashed in the ill-hung bedroom door. Two strides to the bed, he pulled back the covers.

"Let me look at ya girl."

He would remove his trousers and briefs and flop on top of her, pounding her into the bed. Each effort made him more and more frustrated. He would start yelling that it was her fault, his organ was not responding. At this point, Anna could only hear the blood pounding in her ears and feel his heavy weight crushing her body and soul. At some point, which seemed like an eternity he would pass out. She would push her bruised self from under his fleshy body.


Anna was brought back to reality by the slamming of a car door.

As the seconds ticked by, Anna waited for the front door to open. Numb with fear the expected sound of the door opening did not occur. She almost missed the thud hitting the front door.

'Did he fall outside?'

Anna waited a full 10 minutes before getting out of bed. She put on her robe and slippers and crept down the stairs. She went to the small-paned glass windows lining the front door. Turning on the porch light, she wiped the condensation from the glass with her robe.

There was Paul, sprawled on the front porch. Her first thought was, 'let the bastard freeze.'

'No, let me not stoop that low.'

Anna phoned 911.

'Divorce is better than jail'