Copyright © 2013 by Ladylurve

All rights reserved.

---

“This isn’t fair. Why do you have to trouble yourself when he should be the one to leave? He’s never in the house anyways,” Elaine said, prodding the meatball on her plate with a fork.

“Does it still hurt?” She asked.

The light bruise on Lisa’s upper right cheek marked the beginning of visible domestic violence in her opinion. Despite her friend’s refusal to admit it -she claimed it as a gift from one clumsy incident with the bedroom cupboard- Elaine knew better. In her mind, there is no doubt that their fights have taken a nasty turn.

When she failed to return her call last week, Elaine drove to her workplace and demanded to see her. She was consumed with worry that an incident earlier that month may have taken their marriage to a more troubling level. Two weeks ago, her husband returned home one evening and caught Lisa crying in the kitchen while Elaine comforted her. The conclusion he drew from that, Elaine presumed, resulted in a quiet week where Elaine received neither phone calls nor texts despite Lisa’s promise to update her on their then unfolding situation.

Elaine imagined some form of threat must have taken place, thereby forcing Lisa to stay silent. She understood the emotional conflict facing Lisa -her own father being an abusive alcoholic- but seeing Lisa’s bruise only heightened her concerns.

She looked on to her friend who was busy dabbing the corner of her eyes with the table napkin in her right hand. Pushed by feminine instincts, Elaine reached into her handbag and pulled out a tissue packet and handed it to Lisa. Nodding appreciatively, Lisa wiped the remaining tears and proceeded to blow her nose, receiving glares from a few fellow diners.

“Would you like to go someplace private where we can talk?” Elaine asked.

Lisa nodded again.

The drive from The Little Cottage to Elaine’s house took them about ten minutes. It was a quiet one. Lisa needed the time to pull herself together, while Elaine was still digesting Lisa’s news about leaving her husband and the house she worked so hard to make a happy home over the past few years. There were too many bitter memories in their marriage, Elaine knew that much. But she wondered if there was really no hope in reconciliation between Lisa and her husband. Why do two people come together the way they do in the beginning of a relationship? There must have been some romantic inclination towards one another. And how do couples move from being in love to just being? Or do some couples skip a step and just move from being in love to being hateful to one another? Elaine shuddered quietly and felt thankful she was still single and in much control of her own life. Lisa, on the other hand, seemed to have lost control of her own life completely.

Elaine knew Lisa did not have much money. Her husband held her bank cards and her earnings went to their monthly rents, car loan, bills and groceries. Although she never knew where his salary went, she knew that Lisa and Jake hardly saw any of it. Once, Lisa confided that she secretly saved up eight months’ worth of change so she could buy Jake a train set for his birthday. Even then, she could not afford to buy the leading brand Melissa & Doug, which she knew Jake had been ogling at for many months.

Lisa’s husband was hardly home on top of that. The few times he showed his face weekly were only to bring bags of laundry for Lisa. Elaine found it disturbing that Lisa had no knowledge of her husband’s whereabouts during these missing days. Although she also knew it wasn’t for lack of trying. Majority of the time, his phone was either unreachable or out of service. If Lisa was suspicious of her husband’s activities behind her back, she never voiced it out to Elaine. His typical excuse was that work kept him and Lisa believed him. Elaine would have believed him too if she saw his earnings reciprocate those missing hours and nights.

They settled down on a sofa as soon as they entered Elaine’s house and Lisa told Elaine all that took place when he learnt that Elaine knew about their marriage troubles. Afterwards, they both discussed intently and formed plans for the fateful day. The day when Lisa will finally leave him.