Painstakingly Obvious

She said she fell again. Slipped on some vegetable oil that was accidentally spilled on the kitchen floor. She's so clumsy. I mean to fall so hard that an arm is broken to go with her black eye. Poor girl, maybe she'll learn to be careful...



Her only escape, her refuge from the bare white walls of her house, that personal prison was work. For those eight short hours she was able to find solace, comfort, an understanding ear. These were the only times she didn't have to hear the screams, the threats of how she doesn't respect him, doesn't love him enough. Just another way to hide the pain behind the facade of falsity. She admits he can be unbearable, somewhat of a tyrant, but she married him for better, or for worse. He needs someone to take care of him. If not her, who? It's just what a woman needs to do, right? Stand by her man, no matter the cost, what he says goes. "It's just the way he shows he loves me," is what she said to me once. Stating submissively, "He just needs a way to vent, and I'm the only one he can talk to,"

I'm never one to judge, so as she shrugs her shoulders and walks away, I can only wonder. Hope for the best, pray her eyes open to what's going on. It's painstakingly obvious what she's going through. I know she didn't slip, but I played it off as if that's what indeed happened. She always seems so confident, assure of herself, someone who would never allow someone to control her in that matter. Who am I to say their relationship is wrong? Maybe that's what works.

In the following weeks of work, the slips, excuses for bruises become harder to believe. Blaming anything from the dog getting in her way, to how her child accidentally hit her in the nose with his kid Craftsman Hammer. Then one day, she no longer worked there. Disappeared from my world into another world unknown. No one really knows what happened. She never picked up her last check. Never said good-bye. She just quit working.

I always wonder if there was something I could of done, maybe helped in some way, Let her see the light. Allow her to know that a woman should be respected, not tormented or neglected. But who am I to judge? I'm just one man curiously pondering the where abouts of what was painstakingly obvious.