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"You kids get washed up for supper and maybe you should wake Mrs. Cahill up now." Her mother suggested.
"All right mother." Beth nodded.
It seemed so strange that Martina wasn't here, Beth shook off the blue feeling that assailed her. She really did need to talk to her though.
~*~
While her mother and Mother Cahill sat and talked and started making a stew for the next day, Beth decided it was time to talk to Martina. The Savage place wasn't but a few miles down the road. She remembered it wasn't that much of a place, but maybe Martina could fix it up. When she tried Martina could really fix things up nice.
As she walked up to the house, she saw the missing shingles on the roof, the broken glass in the front room. The porch had a hole in it, it was quiet and Beth knocked on the door.
No one answered. It wasn't locked so she went inside. She didn't see anyone, so she looked around. There were dirty dishes in the sink, bugs crawling all over them and the dust was incredible.
She happened to open the bedroom door and caught Martina, in bed, trouble was, she wasn't alone, and it wasn't her husband.
"Martina?" She gasped and shut the door quickly. It took Beth a full minute to recover from the shock. Disheartened, she moved away from the door. She felt sick at her stomach.
Of all the things she expected to see, it wasn't that. Here she was married and had barely even made love to her husband and her sister was in there with a man…not her husband!
She put her hand over her mouth and flopped into a chair in the kitchen, stunned. She didn't know things were this bad, how could she help her?
Directly Martina came out, dressed in a long robe and glared at her. "Well, look at you…dressed like one of them citified ladies. Your hair all fixed up nicely, and red lips. Aren't you the grand lady?"
Martina's nose snarled, and her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Martina, what in the world do you think you are doing?" Beth tried not to sound over condescending but her sister knew better.
"Well, I think by now, you should know…" Martina shot her a sly smile.
"But that isn't your husband in there."
"He's gone out the back. And no, it wasn't John. I guess I've shocked you. My, my."
Beth didn't know where to begin. Martina was no longer the sweet little girl she used to be. She was a vixen. There was an air about her that Beth recognized but didn't care for. If she were any other person, she'd call her a whore. But this was her sweet sister. Or it used to be.
"I just have one word. Why?" Beth knew she sounded witchy, but she couldn't tolerate what Martina was doing.
"You left me, with a warning to find myself a man. So I found one, John courted me for a month, then we got married. At first I thought it would be grand. I imagined all kinds of things. But that was little girl thinking. I ended up in this dump."
"What happened?"
"Well…he's not very good in bed." Martina complained. "For starters."
"And you are?" Beth's eyes widened that she would say such a thing.
"Well, if you must know. Yes…I am." Martina snickered and saw the displeasure on her sister's face. "Don't you dare judge me. You've done it, I'm sure."
"Yes, I've done it, with my husband."
Martina's eyes rounded on her now in disbelief. "So, you got no call to judge me."
Beth swallowed her pride. This was Martina she was talking to, not the church choir.
"No I have no right to judge you. You are right. But you are my sweet little sister, and I never imagined this for you. Never!"
Martina flopped down on a chair and stared, "So you're Miss Prim and Proper are you? Come here to judge me, like the rest. I never thought you would. I never thought you'd turn your nose up at me."
"Martina, this isn't like you. Look at you, you aren't dressed and it's the middle of the day, your hair's a mess, this place is a mess…What is wrong?"
