Eric Courtney - The married sister

"Look out, you're in your bare feet, you'll cut yourself," he said, alarmed by her pale appearance, the odd look in her eye and the way she walked through the glass, impervious to pain or danger.

"Let me see!"

"Gail, you're bleeding!"

"Let me see the letter!" she said in a strange wailing tone.

"Here, take it. Sit down."

He guided her to a chair, alarmed by the way she was behaving. She paid utterly no attention to her cut feet and her bleeding. He sat her down in a chair while her eyes raced madly through the letter.

She sat reading it over and over while Rod ran to get the first aid kit and treated her cuts, pulling shards of glass from her feet. Her cuts sterilized and bandaged, he swept then vacuumed the floor then paused, caught his breath and looked at his wife. She was still as pale as a plaster wall, the letter, read many times over, in her lap, her face vacant of any emotion as she stared off, her eyes sad and resigned.

"Gail, I've got to get you to a doctor," he said, concern in his voice.

"He can't stay here," she said in a small voice.

"Who? Lee? The hell with that now. Get dressed, I'm taking you to a doctor."

She looked up at him as if she hadn't heard. Her eyes seemed larger and darker than he had ever seen them before. And there was an odd unhealthy look to them. "I don't want him to stay here."

"Lee? Why not? He can sleep on the couch. Gail, what the hell is the matter with you? Are you all right?"

She tried to smile and moved to get up, wincing as she put weight on one foot. "Ouch. Oh, that hurts."

"I know." All of his resentment was forgotten. The sight of blood, the thought and sight of someone in pain brought back feelings he had tried to bury and forget since coming back from Vietnam. No matter what he felt, he had been trained to help people when they were hurt. "Let me carry you to the bedroom where we can get you dressed. I've got to get you to the hospital."

"I'll be all right."

"You'll be all right when a qualified doctor can look at those cuts and get all the glass out. What got into you?" he asked as he picked her up in his strong arms and carried her to the bedroom where he put her on the bed and busied himself with gathering clothing for her.

Gail lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, the letter crumbled in her hand. Once before she had lain on the bed, a letter in her hand: Rod's. With a mighty effort, she tried to stir herself. "I don't know," she lied. "I felt so funny when I woke up. I felt worse when I was in the kitchen and that glass just slipped. I'm sorry."

"Forget it and get into these slacks and stuff." He smiled down at her. "You sure were weird about that letter. Walked right through the glass like it was nothing."

"I… I thought something was wrong with Lee. I just had a… funny feeling, that's all," she lied. She removed her robe, wearing only a bra and panties underneath. She paused and lay back, looking up at her husband with half closed eyes. "Rod?" she asked longingly.

"What?"

"Make love to me."

"What? Now? The way you are?"

"Please. Now."

"Gail, don't be crazy. You have a temperature?" He put his hand to her forehead and she seized it and licked the palm of his hand with her tongue. "Gail!"

"Please," she implored, her voice breaking. "It's so important. I need you. Make love to me, make violent love to me. Rod! I need you! Please make love to me! Fuck me like you really mean it."

Rod recoiled at the words. He looked down at his wife. Her face was so tortured, so serious. And there was that strange look in her eye. What was it? Had Rod known, or had he even suspected the lust and agony Gail was feeling at that moment, he would have been able to do something: a gesture, an act, a word. But, he had no idea. He busied himself with dressing her, treating her as a child, preferring to think her rantings came from the fact that she was hurt. He carried her to the car and whisked her off to the hospital, to the emergency ward where a doctor cleaned and treated her cuts, gave her an injection and prescribed some pills to relax and calm her and pronounced her cuts as not being serious at all.

They stopped at the drug store and Gail sat in the car while Rod ran in to have the prescription filled. She sat parked in the shopping center and watched the people around her. They seemed so normal with such normal activities. Mothers and fathers with their children, teen-agers walking arm in arm, older people window shopping. All this, she thought, and Lee is coming. The letter didn't say when, just that he was on his way. The letter was postmarked two days ago. He could be arriving at any time. What was she going to do?

Rod broke her reverie as he got into the car, slamming the door and looking at her. "How're you feeling?"

She tried out a wan smile. "Better."

"You sure acted funny. All I said was I got a letter from Lee and you acted funny."

"I know." She took a deep breath and lied. "It's just that I never hear from him and he should be in school now. He was here awhile ago. Didn't I tell you?"

"No, I didn't know that. How was he?"

"Wild. Lot of things disturbing him. I worry about him and when you got that letter I had the crazy feeling something was very wrong. Silly. I'm so sorry."

For what seemed the first time in a long while, Rod smiled at her warmly. "Forget it. Let's get home and give you this medicine."

Rod was very attentive all evening long. He placed her on the couch and placed pillows behind her back and turned on the television and made and fetched her drinks. He even managed a simple dinner that he served her on the couch. Gail was grateful for his attention even though she kept protesting she was all right and could manage for herself. The prescription, a tranquilizer, worked well and Gail found herself being lulled into an artificial serenity by the combination of pills and scotch. She liked the lazy drowsy feeling they supplied her and drifted off to sleep, thinking of how nice it would be to take tranquilizers and make love. She curled on the couch, looking at Rod with a sleepy-eyed look, smiling, murmuring, "Why don't we go to bed?"

Rod nodded, watching the TV. "In a little while." His plan was to wait for her to fall asleep, cover her, turn everything off and go to bed alone, using the excuse that she needed sleep. He didn't have too long to wait and he sat smoking and drinking, pretending he was watching television but really thinking about his wife. It was something more than just an affair. But what? Her behavior when he said he had a letter from Lee was odd. Weird, in fact. But why? He found Lee's letter and read it over. It was simple and short. Lee had been a visitor when he was in Vietnam. What had happened? Gail called him wild and disturbed. What had happened and why did she wait until now to tell him Lee had visited? It wasn't like her to forget a thing like that. She had always been so fond of Lee.

"Fond." Sitting in the chair, tapping the letter thoughtfully against his chin, he said the word softly. He had heard of "stuff like that" in Vietnam. There was even the Okie kid, a real hayseed farm boy who said he had fucked his cousin and various farm animals. Rod had always put him down as a bragging crackpot.

He shook his head and got to his feet. Nothing like that could happen here. He felt a little ashamed of himself for thinking such thoughts about his wife and brother-in-law. Hell, he thought, last time I saw him, he was just a kid.

He went to bed troubled, thinking. There was something very wrong with Gail and something wrong with their marriage. He couldn't accept a wife who made love the way they had the last time. He had to talk to her. They both had to sit down and soberly talk over things. Maybe a visit to a minister or doctor would help. Something had to be done.