GOODBYE, CRUEL RICHARD
Faye looked up from where she stood on the steps of the
front porch. The wetness of an early afternoon found her in the calm before a
violent storm. From a great distance, she saw a blue-black mass that churned
its way towards her. Faye thought
it looked more like a bruise than a hurricane. The wind whipped her hair against her expressionless face
and began to jostle her. Soon it will be here, was all that she could
think. It would be sudden and
frightening and beautiful. And then it would all be over. She returned to her
perch, a rusted iron swing by the front door, and kneaded her filthy hands.
Bill had slapped her in the face a few days ago. Hard. He said that she made him do it,
that if she had done things right, there would have been no need to ever hit
her at all. That was the heart of
the problem between them as far as he was concerned: she kept saying and doing things that upset him. If she'd stop, they could be happy.
After he left, as Faye lay on the couch with her head back to stop the bleeding,
she realized that after ten years of marriage, she couldn't hear his apologies
anymore. She had shut out so much
of what he said and did that in a way, he wasn't ever really there until he
took a swing at her. Which was
probably why he hit her so often.
She wished she had the guts to kill him.
They had been happy but somewhere in there, they began to
argue a lot. One day, Bill hit Faye and she didn't do anything about it. The next thing she knew, ten years had
gone by.
When she awoke in near darkness the way she always did, when
she felt him reach for her and pin her to the bed and pry her legs open and
climb on top of her, Faye thought about having him killed. But then with her luck, she would get
caught and have to go to jail for the rest of her life, or fry in the
chair. So she began to consider
other options.
She was watching the weather report one afternoon when she
remembered a story she'd heard, about a neighbor's best friend's cousin's
ex-girlfriend's neighbor.
She got caught in a hurricane and was found several states away. Battered and bruised, broken legs,
completely disoriented--but alive.
That's when Faye realized that, although she was terrified of planes,
she'd always wanted to fly. She
decided that if the hurricane came close enough, there would be a flying
lesson. She could hardly wait.
Faye had taken every precaution. Everything was unplugged, cleared away, set aside. Windows and doors were flung open as
the wind whipped its way through the house, searching for something. Faye scrambled into a pair of steel toed boots, a large
woolen sweater and finally a leather jacket. As an afterthought, she grabbed Bill's motorcycle helmet
before heading outside. Maybe it will take me to a Chinatown somewhere, she
thought to herself as she put on the helmet and stepped out onto the road in
front of her house. Or someplace
up North. Jersey or something. Anywhere but here.
The sky turned sullen.
As the wind shoved her, she stood there, legs apart, arms akimbo,
mesmerized by the fury that surrounded her. When she was small, they gave hurricanes female names but
this one was named Richard.
"
Don't that beat all?" Bill laughed one evening as they ate supper and
watched Richard's progress on the news. "A homo hurricane."
Faye looked at the back of his head and thought, Who are
you and why did I marry you?
The question fell between them like a brick. She wished she could hit him with it.
Faye leaned into the wind and staggered towards a clearing
nearby. This is fun, she thought, and she laughed. That's when she heard Bill's voice, calling to her from
somewhere near the front yard. He was waving to her, then walking towards her
gradually, spewing obscenities.
Something about you crazy dumb bitch, are you nuts, I'm gonna beat your
ass. Something like that. He came home early from work and how he's going to
ruin everything, Faye thought. So
she began to run towards Richard.
As she did, she involuntarily cried out for help and fell into a ditch,
with a resounding thud. Startled and frightened, she pressed her face into the
soft wet ground and sobbed uncontrollably. It was the very first time that Faye had ever done such a
thing, in all the years that her husband had known her. Bill stopped for a moment, stunned.
By the time he realized what was really going on, it was all
over.
All kinds of things seemed to be going up, up and away, into
the darkness above them.
Rooftops. Cars. Dirt. Animals. Bill was carried away, kicking and screaming, lost
in the ever-widening swirl of debris that lifted itself higher and higher as it
moved farther away until it was finally gone.
Faye closed her eyes and waited her turn but fortunately
Bill was the last one scheduled for take-off. After a few hours, she worked her way out of the ditch and
limped towards what was left of the house--her house now. It would be awhile before anyone found
her. May as well wait out the rescue effort from the
front porch.
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