Page 26 of Cuts Like An Angel: Part 3

Wow. She’d pissed the floor. Rosie gave a sweet smile. “I’ll tend to that later. I’ve got things to do. Try not to step on it.” And slip and break your neck. She smiled through those thoughts, though not voicing them.

“That’s unsanitary,” she yelled at Rosie, as Rosie headed for the door.

“You should have thought of that.”

“I’m feeble,” she screeched, as Rosie shut the door quickly behind her. “I’m telling William. I will. I’ll tell him you abuse me. You’re mean to me. You’ll see which one of us he chooses.”

Rosie stood on the other side of the door, stilling the tremble in her body and the pulse quickening itself. Deep breaths. He won’t believe her. He won’t.

“I need to shit. I need to take a shit,” she screamed, throwing things at the door. “Get back in here you little bitch.”

Rosie raced to the kitchen and slammed the door closed. Leaning against it, she let out several gasps while gripping the handle. “God,” she whispered, looking back over her shoulder at the clock and keeping her ear trained on the clanging and banging racket coming from Maria’s room. Where the hell was William? He said it wouldn’t take long. He’d got the part ordered. Said he’d be back to do the tea trip. Of course, she’d assured him she could handle it. No problem. He’d gone three hours now. That was long.

Rosie finally picked up her phone and headed out the back door to the safety of their porch. She hurried down the steps when images of the woman barging out the door and attacking her, made the hair on her arms stand up.

“Everything okay?” William asked when he answered.

“Yes. Fine,” Rosie lied, immediately remembering their pact to never lie to each other about these things. “Sorry,” she said. “Not fine.”

“What’s happened? I’m five minutes away. Are you okay? Did she do something? I knew it was a bad idea to leave you.”

“I’m fine.” She blurted, feeling stupid and guilty now. “She … she’s just being ornery.”

“What did she do? Tell me.”

The bite left his tone and felt oddly like a hug. “Aside from the usual sweet talk, she peed on the floor.”

The long silence on the line made Rosie pace down to the bottom of the garden and to the small foot bridge that crossed the stream. She didn’t know what to say; how to make it better because she didn’t know what he was thinking. And then she saw she was standing in front of the stream, and the place he’d described when he’d told her about the kittens—kittens his mother had made him drown when he was a child. She covered her mouth to keep the sob from escaping and putting him on even higher alert.

Oh, William …

It tore her heart more than she’d ever let him know. Or maybe she should let him know. Let him know that all his mother did was evil and wrong.

William had been talking. She caught the tail end of what he said. “I swear to God; I should call a priest. She’s a demonic bitch.”

“She wanted me to clean it.” She crossed the bridge again, putting herself back in the main garden. She couldn’t deal with Maria and the memory of Maria at the same time. Double dose of evil. It was just too much.

“Did you?”

“God, no.”

“I’ll make her clean it. Better yet, it can dry there.”

“William.”

“She’s doing all of this on purpose.”

“I know that. We both know that. We knew she would.”

“I don’t know how much of this we can handle.”

“You can handle it,” Rosie said, needing to reassure him.

“You don’t know her, Rosie. This is a challenge for her. She’ll be leaving piles of shit next. I can’t deal with those. If she does that then …”

“Then what?”

“Then we’ll rub her nose in it? Whack her with the newspaper? Treat her like the fucking dog she is? Wouldn’t that be something, Huh, Rosie? Maybe I can throw a lead on her and tie her to the bed. She wants to act like an animal, she can live like one. Only problem is, she’ll probably like it. She’s that strange. You don’t know …”

---