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Mom snatches my biceps and yanks in an effort to get me off the floor. “Let’s go. ”
Ryan curses and I unsuccessfully struggle to stand. “Help him, Mom. ”
Ryan locks his other arm around Trent’s neck and yells, “Go, Beth!” Trent battles against Ryan’s hold and Ryan’s face strains as he fights to keep his grip.
Mom shakes her head. “Let’s go. Now. He’ll hurt me. ”
Trent elbows Ryan in the gut, swings around and lands a blow to Ryan’s face. Ryan falls.
“No!” Screams and pleas fly from my mouth. Blood covers Ryan’s face. Trent stands and kicks Ryan in the stomach. I scream out in pain when I place weight on my left arm.
“Help him, Mom!”
“We have to go now, Elisssabeth. ” Mom calmly slurs my name. “I want to leave. I’ll go with you now. ”
I turn my head and stare at the eerie image of my mother. Her tired eyes with their constricted pupils look at me as if I’m a shadow instead of her daughter. Mom squeezes my hand again. For the first time, she’s not rubbing her arm.
Cradling my left arm close to my body, I grip the table and pull myself to my feet. “You shot up?”
As I stand, Mom drops to the ground. In shame? In exhaustion? Too high? I don’t know.
Refusing to watch Ryan die, refusing to make eye contact with me, Mom covers her head with her arms and rocks over and over again.
Blood pours over my eye and my sight wavers as my body sways to the side. My fingers accidently hit Mom’s cordless phone near the edge of the table.
Heroin.
It destroyed me nine years ago and one phone call cost me my father.
Heroin.
If I call, my mother will go to jail.
Heroin.
My finger slides against the numbers and like nine years ago I listen to the phone ring once, twice, a third time. The world turns black, then reappears in a fuzzy tunnel. My knees buckle and I force consciousness for a few more seconds.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
Ryan
I SET MY CELL to the loudest ringtone and place it on my chest before I rest my head on my pillow. Beth’s supposed to come home from the hospital today and because of that I’ve refused pain medication. I want to hear her voice on the other end of the line and know that she’s only a mile down the road instead of thirty minutes away in Louisville.
Then, for the first time in more than a week, I can sleep deeply.
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My body is one slow, throbbing ache. Every pressure point pounds in time with my pulse.
Broken ribs, bruised everything, and cuts. Each and every injury worth the cost of saving Beth.
“Can you tell me why?” My dad’s voice carries into the room.
My eyes flash open and I turn my head to see him leaning against the door frame with his gaze pinned to the floor. It’s the first words he’s said to me since I hit him. He’s been around. Present, but not speaking. I don’t feel bad about it, because I haven’t talked to him either…until now. “Why what?”
“Why you risked it all for that girl?”
“Because I love her. And her name’s Beth. ”
