Fireflies
August 28, 2002
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Homework: Part 3 of 4 for the final project
Darla sits in the reclining patio chair watching the fireflies buzz and blink nearby. The night sky is filled with them. It's feels good to be able to just sit and watch and relax. She thinks.
The sky is filled with twinkling stars, the dew sits heavily on the freshly mown grass. The air is filled with the tiny, blinking bodies of fireflies. There is also a heavy scent of smoke in the air; the acrid type of smoke that comes from burning wood, house siding, furniture, insulation, and everything else that would have been in a typical house. The scent eases the lines in Darla's face. Her entire body relaxes as she turns to watch the conflagration that was once the home she shared with her beloved husband of four years, Rick.
Rick. The thought of him sends shivers down her spin. He was so wonderful when they met seven years ago. . . .
* * * * *
He was kind and gentle, warm and passionate. Rick had a love for life that was exceeded only by his love for Darla and her happiness. His soft brown eye melted her heart, his soft kiss melted her soul. Those years were the happiest that Darla ever knew. Rick was such a wonderful person in Darla's eyes. No one could say anything bad about him, not that many did. Sure, he seemed a bit controlling when it came to money, but she didn't mind. She liked having not to worry about such little details. They dated for three years, never once thinking of living together. Then he popped the ultimate question.
On a moonlit night in March, he asked her to marry him.
He took her to meet his family, something he had not wanted to do until this point. She was excited to finally see where he grew up. They spent a week at his folk's house. While they were there Darla didn't have to do anything. Everything around the house was taken care of by Rick's mother, while his father worked. Darla talked to his mother a bit, but the older woman always had something else to do, she was always very busy. Darla watched her while she worked and noticed that she almost never used her left arm. She asked the older woman what had happened, and Rick's mother said that she had been in a nasty fight when she was young. She said that she had her arm broken in four places and her elbow was never set properly because she didn't have the money to see a doctor.
Darla tried to get more information about this long-ago event just to have conversation, but just then Rick came into the room and his mother scurried off to do more chores. When Rick and Darla left at the end of the week, Darla had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach that she eventually just chalked up to nerves for the upcoming wedding.
In July they were wed. It was the happiest day of her life; it was also the last happy day that would be allowed her. As soon as they left the reception he began to order her around as though she were a slave. At first she didn't know what to make of the new change in her new husband. She thought that maybe he was overtired from the wedding. It had been an extravagant affair, coordinated completely by Rick.
He always handled everything. She had grown used to that. He would even balance her checkbook, saying that she was just a silly girl. She had never even thought about it. If she had, she might have realized that he hadn't been joking. She found out quickly what he thought women were really for.
That first night was the first of a long series of nights. He took her to bed, after she had handled all the "woman's work." When she was ready to snuggle, he took her by force. He pinned her arms above her head with his hands and proceeded to do what he wished despite her cries. When he was done, he pushed her to the floor, mumbling something about women and dogs.
She cried the rest of the night, and every night for the next four years.
She tried to talk to him about their lovemaking. He replied that it was nothing more than a way to bring sons into the world. She had asked what would happen if she had a daughter. He had turned to her, snarling and told her that she best make sure that that never happens.
Every night in the years following, he would take her, and every morning he would go to work. He had forbidden her having a job, saying that it was a man's place to be in the office while the woman stayed home and took care of the house, and the children
The children. There weren't any. After two years he began to outright beat her for her incompetence to bear him the sons he wanted. She cried all the harder. But now she was resigned to the fact that it must happen to everyone. Because no one ever asked her about the obvious bruises on her jaw, or the gap in her mouth where a tooth had been knocked out.
One month she missed her cycle. She was very happy. Darla thought that maybe if she was pregnant, then he would stop the beating for a time. She was right. Until they found out what the sex of the child was.
It was a girl.
He beat her that night until she miscarried.
A few months later she missed her cycle again. This time she did not tell Rick that she was with child. He wouldn't notice until she was well along. She waited until she knew what the sex was. It was a girl. She began preparations for an abortion. But the doctor she had gone to called Rick to confirm the appointment, to make sure he was going to be there during her time of need.
Darla never knew what hit her.
She got home after making the appointment well before he should have been there. She didn't see the car in the drive way, so she didn't think anything of the fact that the front door was unlocked. After she closed the door, she hit the floor unconscious. Rick stood over her with a bat. She woke up some time after sunset. She was still on the floor, and she could hear Rick watching TV in the living room. She gathered her strength and walked into the room.
He never bothered to acknowledge her presence. Which is why he never noticed when she picked up the bat, her hands shaking in fury. He never saw the arc of the swing, the glint of the TV's light off the glossy varnish. And then, he never saw anything again. After that first swing, she couldn't stop herself. She beat him until he was no longer recognizable, then preceded to smash everything she could. At some point there was a spark, whether from a lamp or an outlet, she will never know. But the next thing she knew was that a fire had sprung up about her, and was spreading at a tremendous speed.
She escaped the house in time, and sat down in the reclining patio chair in a yard a couple houses down from hers.
* * * * *
Darla sits in the reclining patio chair watching the fireflies buzz and blink nearby. The night sky is filled with them. It's feels good to be able to just sit and watch and relax. She thinks.
NOTE: This was an assignment for my CCV Creative Writing Workshop online class with Nancy Thompson.
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