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SOMEONE WAS WATCHING her She tugged on the black wig, flattening it against her ears, and quickly put on another coat of deep-red lipstick, holding the mirror up so she could see behind her
The young Marine saw her face in the rinned at her She jumped as if she’d been shot Just stop it He’s harhteen, his head all shaved, his cheeks as smooth as hers She tilted thea Dick Francis novel In the seat behind the into each other, asleep
The seat in front of her was e Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” a song that always twisted up her insides The only one who seeotten on at the last stop in Portland He was probably going hoirlfriend He wasn’t after her, surely, but soht her so ain
She put the mirror back into her purse and fastened the flap She stared at her fingers, at the white line where the wedding ring had been until three days ago She’d tried to pull it off for the past six ed to do it She had been too out of it even to fasten the Velcro on her sneakers—when they allowed her sneakers—
Soon, she thought, soon she would be safe Herin the ht when she didn’t know anyone could hear her But without her there, they couldn’t do a thing to Noelle Odd how she rarely thought of Noelle as her mother anymore, not like she had ten years before, when Noelle had listened to all her teenage probleaether Before Yes, before that night when she’d seen her father slam his fist into herof at least two ribs
She’d run in, screa at him to leave her mother alone, and jumped on his back He was so surprised, so shocked, that he didn’t strike her He shook her off, turned, and shouted down at her, “Mind your own business, Susan! This doesn’t concern you” She stared at him, all the fear and hatred she felt for him at that moment clear on her face
“Doesn’t concern ain!”
He looked cal madly in his neck “It was her fault, Susan Mind your own damned business Do you hear me? It was her fault” He took a step toward her mother, his fist raised She picked up the Waterford carafe off his desk, yelling, “Touch her and I’ll bash your head in”
He was panting now, turning swiftly to face her again, no more cale “Bitch! Da little bitch! I’ll ainst irl who’s never done a thing in her life except spend her father’s ain He looked at both of the the door behind him
“Yeah, right,” she said and very carefully and slowly set the Waterford carafe down before she dropped it
She wanted to call an ambulance but her mother wouldn’t allow it “You can’t,” she said, her voice as cracked as her ribs “You can’t, Sally Your father would be ruined, if anyone believed us I can’t allow that to happen”
“He deserves to be ruined,” Sally said, but she obeyed She was only sixteen years old, hoirls’ school in Laurelberg, Virginia Why wouldn’t they be believed?
“No, dearest,” herher in on herself “No Get me that blue bottle of pills in the medicine cabinet Hurry, Sally The blue bottle”
As she watched heras she did so, she realized the pills were there because her father had struck her mother before Deep down, Sally had known it She hated herself because she’d never asked, never said a word
That night her irls’ school and ton, DC, in hopes of protecting hershe could find on abuse—not that it helped
That was ten years ago, though sometimes it seemed like last week Noelle had stayed with her husband, refusing to seek counseling, refusing to read any of the books Sally brought her It made no sense to Sally, but she’d stayed as close as possible, until she’d met Scott Brainerd at the Whistler exhibition at the National Gallery of Art and married him two months later