You Deserved It

The kitchen window began to cloud over from the steaming hot dishwater. She yanked her hands from the sink, shocked by their blood-red coloring. They were shaking, but not from the pain of being burned.

The men sitting at the kitchen table continued laughing and smoking, drinking and littering her floor with their refuse. A beer bottle rolled over to rest near her tattered sneakers. She bent to retrieve it and jerked up when a hard smack landed on her butt. Her head collided with the edge of the counter and she collapsed from the impact.

"The hell is wrong with you, woman?"

Teeth gritting, she ignored her husband's question and recomposed herself. Tendrils of cigarette smoke encompassed the enclosed room and she fought off a wave of dizziness.

"I asked you a question! Never mind, bring me another beer, and I'm not wanting to hear nothin' from you."

The refrigerator was half full of beer and she grappled with six of them to make sure she didn't have to go back. Grotesque comments, pinches and grabs proceeded but she served drinks to the letter.

Steel strengthened her bowed spine with every word and gesture. More and more she became resolute on her path. Finally, she turned to her husband. "My Dad just died, his funeral is tomorrow, and this is how you treat me? How you let me be treated?"

Group hoots and howls followed that, and then, "Who gives a crap about your dad? He never gave me nothin'!"

With a toothy smile, she said, "He gave you me. And you definitely deserved it."

Flames and burnt shingles were featured on the morning news. Only one person survived the blaze that seemingly began from a gas oven being left on. The survivor is unavailable for comment.