Page 7 of Property of Thrasher
That’s why I haven’t seen her in a month. She married BJ in a quiet ceremony and they have been on their honeymoon for the last few weeks. Given she actually had a crush on BJ, I thought this arrangement would make her happy. They weren’t strangers or enemies. Given the state of things I was worried they would hand her over to someone else to continue showing the curse upon our bloodline.
Our cousin, Rachel was married to a man who made it known on every level he hated her. The way he has marked her body from the beginning showed everyone how bad her situation was. Everyone could see her pain, but he justified it under the umbrella of her lacking submission.
I didn’t buy into the submission crap. How could any God of any kind think any of his creatures were beneath another? Just because men were created first didn’t mean they had more value than a woman. Unfortunately for me, no one else in my community saw beyond the way we had been indoctrinated. Lyric got lucky given how things could have went.
BJ and Lyric dated, well as much as someone could in our town. It was in high school, which he was older than us, but still we graduated this spring. He broke up with her when he left for college, something else common in our culture. Men got education while women waited for their assignment from the almighty. Lyric waited for him to come back all while wondering if the elders would see fit to assign her to him. She literally prayed for this union.
And it worked out for her.
I don’t understand her panic now. I thought things went well. And what did any of this have to do with me?
“What’s going on, Lyric?” I asked moving deeper into the house.
“We have to leave. I’m going to take my car, pack it up, and in two days, we take off and head East.”
My eyes shot open wide. “Car?”
She nodded, “BJ bought me a small sedan for a wedding gift. He wanted me to be able to go to the grocery store and bring him lunch on job sites and such. He plans to start teaching me to drive it. He went and got it registered and all that stuff. It has insurance, it’s legal to drive.” I stood in place freaked right out. Women didn’t typically get cars in our town. She took a deep breath. “Melody, this is our only chance.”
Panic crawled all through me. “You want to leave town? Are you crazy?”
“We have to leave them. All of them. The community, the church, the family.”
“And what are we going to do exactly?”
She swallowed heavily. “What normal people do! Get a job, work, and live life on our terms.”
“Lyric what is wrong?”
I wanted to shake her. We didn’t have much time before BJ realized she wasn’t home and I was expected back at my parents’ home to make dinner. As the oldest child still living in their home, I had responsibilities. If I slipped up there would be consequences. While my father was mostly mild mannered compared to other men around us, he absolutely believed in spare the rod, spoiled the child. He would dish out a punishment if I got caught because I didn’t ask permission. A little thing like that was a world of trouble for us.
“There is a gathering coming. Your name is up.”
Dread instantly filled my gut. I knew it would come, but I had hoped Lyric’s wedding would tide them over for a bit.
Who had been chosen for me? Are they going to make me marry BJ? While our particular religion doesn’t have the best reputation, the elders were purposeful in their pairings. A man could have three wives only, and no more than a five year age difference between a husband and any of his wives. My grandmother said they did that to avoid attention from the government after some big organization down south was torn apart over child brides.
While the rules could be a bit much at times, I considered us lucky that our leaders protected young girls and made sure we were married to men that were close to being peers. Arranged marriages were awkward no matter how anyone went about it, but at least not being with a man old enough to be my grandfather would be so bad.
“In seven days, you will be married. That can’t happen to you. We only have a few days to get things together and get on the road out of here, Mel. The pairing will be announced any day now.”
My stomach twisted inside. I nodded. “How do you know I’m next? Is it BJ? I don’t want to share a husband with you, Lyric.” The thoughts ran rampant through my head. I loved my cousin and the thought of sharing a man repulsed me.
She shook her head, but then nodded. “I don’t know who yet. And I’m not sure that they won’t give you to BJ. I don’t know much actually. Just BJ smiled after we came back and he got the call for a gathering. I asked. All I got was you’re up. He said he was hopeful he could have us both. He didn’t elaborate.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t ready to be married. Maybe I was in denial. In our culture this was my natural next step. Why then did it twist me up inside in the worst ways?
“I can’t do this, Lyric. I’m not you. The only experience I had with a boy was Logan and you know how badly that went. I’m not ready. How do I do this? You have managed and it turned out okay, right?”
She shook her head and dropped her gaze from mine as if shame had washed over her. “Mel, I’m living a nightmare. He’s not kind. He’s sick in the head.” The tears began to stream down her face. “I once thought I could find a good life with real love. I was actually excited to be called as his bride. BJ seemed genuine when we were young. He never let things go too far.”
I remembered all the times he took her out and never did more than give her a kiss. Other people would make out and girl’s would get bad reputations, but BJ never allowed things to progress where anyone could look sideways at Lyric.
“What happened, Lyric?”
She shook her head like she was fighting to shake off a bad memory. “He wasn’t slow. He wasn’t gentle. And he demanded things,” she started shaking her head back and forth. “Awful, painful things. And that isn’t the half of it. He will kill me if I don’t walk his line. I’m sure of it. Mel, it’s me or him, I know that to my gut. If he has a chance, he’ll kill me or I’m gonna snap and slit his throat. This is not how love, life, or eternity should be. I can’t begin to tell you the things he did to me.”
“Shhh,” I comforted giving her hand a squeeze. “I can use my imagination.”
