Wives

(To the reader:  When you've finished reading this, please review it.  Thank you.)

There is a long line of wives waiting.  Each is dressed in a heavy cotton scarf that tucks around the head, behind the ears, and then it is pulled forward to cover the wife from her chin to just above the floor.  Pins are the only element of personal preference a wife may wear, and all are used to hold the scarf in place in the front, and under the arms.  So that she may bear her beliefs, a heavily embroidered gold cross, highly visible across her shoulders, it extends from the base of the head to their waist, and from shoulder to shoulder.  Each denomination has different styles of crosses from which the wife of that denomination may easily be identified, and it is also a design that cannot vary.  This cross, besides their pins is the only ornamentation allowed to the individual wife.

Slowly, the line moves forward.  There are neither chairs nor benches for the wives to use.  Each carries with them a small black case.  And in these cases are one change of scarves, one change of a sub-scarf, and only a few may carry two sets of pins, most only carry one.  This is one item that the wives are allowed to carry; the other is a small compact, one inch thick by three inches wide by five inches high.  It is the only piece of literature that a wife may be seen with at anytime; it is her Holy Bible.

There are no other reading materials; no exposition of Biblical texts, neither a guide to reading the Bible, nor a commentary on the Bible.  “Sola Scriptura” is what the Men say, the Lords of the wives.

There is only silence, as any radio or television in the presence of a wife is considered lewd and lascivious, and bears its own punishment from the Law.  There are many things lacking in this long line of wives who are waiting.  No water is given to them unless it is given to all.  This water is pure, and has no taste or smell, unlike what the wives are used to bathing in while at their Lords home.  When the water is passed down the long line of wives, only three gulps may be taken, with the words: “In the Name of the Father” drink “Son” drink “and the Holy Spirit” drink.  I t has been hours since the wives last had anything to eat or drink, and it appears that it will be hours before they may once again partake.

Once, before the Entrance into the Holy of Holies, it has been whispered fearfully amongst wives, that pins existed that were longer than those used to hold the scarf’s shape.  Some pins were twisted and bent like the Shepherd’s Crook that is always in the right hand of the community’s Minister.  Not only did these exist, but wives were allowed to own one so they could make their own clothing while sitting in a chair.  Nobody in the line can remember when they were last asked to sit in a chair.

No speaking is allowed amongst the wives, especially not in such a public place as here.  The line moves forward by one wife.  There are three things that an unsupervised wife may do in public; always look down to the ground, she may pray if there are none around to witness this, and lastly, she may read the Holy Bible when she is not watching for pedestrian or vehicular traffic.  Should she bump into any other wife, they simply go on their way, insuring that the Police did not see the accident, and view it as cause to call upon the wife’s Man.  Should she bump into another man, however, this is a most unfortunate event, and one of the reasons for such long lines of wives that we presently see.  She must bring to her trial, the witness of three Men, before the Judge and her Man.  But since this is impossible, as she is legally forbidden from speaking with any Man in public, including her own Man; she is always found guilty of lewd and lascivious behavior.

The sentence is usually carried out by her Man, who is bound by law to strike her no more than three times, and no less.  No provision has been made as to with what he may strike her.

Since the Entrance to the Holy of Holies was breached nearly seventy-five years ago, a new era of freedoms emerged.  Wives, who were once called “women”, ran about the surface of the earth, in all manner of profession and dress, seeking whom they may devour.  Some were married.  Some were single.  Some lived with Men.  While some lived in sin with other women. There were also those who lived alone, raising a family without a Man.  By the standards of today, this is not considered a “family” but a brothel.

Many different trades and professions were afforded to them; there was protection of women, and some women were protectors.  Considerably fewer laws applied to them and their bodies then, than now.  The laws now provide greater freedoms, or so the wives are told.

“I now pronounce you Man and wife.  Go forth, be fruitful and multiply.”  These are the words that transfer possession of a female to the status of “wife.”  No female may enter this Union until she is 18 years old.  No female exists over the age of 18 years.  Should her Father not find a suitable Man in time, she will be sent to the Cells where she will be cut off from the rest of the world, save water and food twice a day, until a Man can be found that will grudgingly take her from her Father’s council.

No toys are allowed as a female, and she is not to speak to any Man, whether a younger Brother or her Father.  She is not allowed to cook, clean or play.  She is taught by Father’s wife how to read the Holy Bible.  Her room is sparse with only a bed and thick blankets.  Her room is borrowed, and will be inspected daily from floor to ceiling, mattresses turned up and any holes found will be immediately puttied over or sewn shut.  She is never allowed out to watch television or listen to music.  Her walls are doubled and filled with cotton batting that is replaced yearly.  The opening to clean out the batting is on the outside at the bottom of the wall.  The door is always locked from the outside.  The walls are then covered both inside and outside with thick layers of blankets and mattresses.  No noise is allowed in, and certainly not allowed out.

Her menses is the most shocking thing to happen to any female, since nobody speaks with her about this, or anything about her body.  She screams until she is coughing up blood, and only when silence has fallen, is the old wife allowed into the room to nurse the female to health. 

It is only at this time, and only once, that the old wife tells the female what is happening to her, what is expected of her, and what will happen if she cannot fulfill these duties.  Unbeknownst to the Man of the House, the old woman tells the female that there was once a time when wives were considered equal with their Men, and that these wives were called “women” and were allowed to leave the house alone, and go wherever they like.  Women once had the right to say “no” to pregnancy, and when the Judicial Council made that illegal, most women felt that they could control their pregnancies through other means.  Over time, it came that something called “birth control” was prohibited and vigorously outlawed.  Women now had choices to make; stay or leave their country.  However, a new law both regulated and extradited women’s movements. 

By the time their rights were fully overturned by the Judicial Council, it was too late.  It was then that new laws “for the freedom of all” were initiated and installed.  It was then that women stopped being called women, and were only “wives.”  There was a rash of abortions in one year, and this resulted in the separation of wives from all others, restricting television, radios and speaking at all with other wives.  The scarves came last, which was the ultimate humiliation of many of the wives; being property first to God by Denomination, then property to a Man.

Regardless, this is the last time the female will see her mother, and be taken to the Cells until a suitable arrangement can be made.  This takes years in some cases.

Cooking, cleaning and sewing are the duties of an old wife who can no longer bear children for her Man.  She may either stay on after the Man has Divorced her, or the Man may make arrangements to return her to her home if her Father is alive, or simply send her to the Cells until someone needs a wife that cannot produce children.

The line moves forward again, but this time by many wives, three to be exact.  The rest of the wives stare blankly ahead, some may drop their eyes to see which denomination the wife in front of her may belong to, but other than this, there simply is nothing else to see.

A scream of “No!” rings through the blank corridor.  The wives strain to look ahead, some even bow out of line by a few inches on the left, and others may bow to the right, against a cold brick wall.  In all cases, a Man comes from behind them and pulls the women who tried to look further ahead and moves them to the front of the line.  The only movement allowed is to pick up something that is dropped.  May there be mercy if it is the Holy Bible should she fumble and drop.  It is an immediate Divorce by the Man, and life in the Cells; this time, with no Holy Bible to read.

The “No!” is shouted again, this time by a different wife.  The wives freeze in place, daring not to impugn the Judgment of the Man in Charge.  A third and a fourth “No!” ring through the hall, this time, they are said nearly simultaneously.  None of the wives have any idea of what had been done, what the Men’s Testimony was, or what was the ruling.  They have been told from birth that these are all matters of Affairs of State and Men; that they are either too young as a female, or that her Man will, if He deems it appropriate, tell her as His wife.

The water breaks for a pregnant wife in line, and the Man in Charge summons the old wife from the Judicial Chambers.  An immediate inspection tells the old wife that the delivery will not be as easy as others.  Bowing deeply before the Man in Charge, she informs him of what she has found, and respectfully requests that the Man calls for an ambulance.  While waiting, the old wife more closely inspects the wife and what the old wife can see and feel of the birth canal tells her more than her initial assessment.  The old wife looks into the face of the wife; she looks into the eyes of the wife, who has now gone pale.

The old wife stands up with a sneer on her face as she looks down on the wife.  Spinning on the heal of a shoe that is only three pieces of leather, the old woman walks away with her head held high, back fully turned on the woman, who is now weeping and frantically pulling at her scarf, and bowing, the old wife reports to the Man what she has observed.

The wife is brought into the Judicial Chambers ahead of all others in line, and told to lay on a bench that has a place for her feet, she is told, and she places her heals in the stirrups.  Her scarf is pulled up, and she is naked from the waist down.  No woman may speak in Court, so the old wife speaks to the Doctor, who initially discovers and testifies before the Judge that there is scar tissue inside this wife, and that this scar tissue is not consistent with child bearing.

His manner is rough and uncaring, to show any compassion to a wife may be considered disloyal to his own wife, and that would place them both at risk considering the long line in which the wives are currently standing outside the Judicial Chambers; inspecting each of them will be a difficult task.  Because of the pains of childbirth, and the dispassionate manner her sore muscles and organs are feeling, the wife looks around the room and her eyes lock onto the wall farthest from her, above her head.  It is there that she sees three scarves hanging on the back wall.  They are facing the wall, but there is still a body in the scarf, bodies that are spread out, looking like they were Crucified.  They were Crucified.  The hands of one of the wives have been cut off and nailed on another woman, at her mid-section, her womb.  This other woman also has dried berries shoved into her mouth, and the third also has something coming from her mouth; an orange foam, but in her hands, she is holding a different flower in each.  They had been found guilty of attempting an abortion.

The wife on the table screams at the top of her lungs while the Doctor forces a metal tube into her cervix and further into her uterus.  He is cleaning the walls with an appliance that emerged from the metal tube, and begins to systematically scrape and suck the contents of the wife’s womb.

Before she can even comprehend what has happened to her, she is being picked up by two Men, and third following behind.  At the same moment and with practiced deliberation, the woman is Crucified against the wall, and the embryonic remains are placed in a plastic sac, then pinned to her midsection, where her womb would be, for any and all to see.

The line is long and full of wives, all are terrified, and with reason so:  They expect beatings, they have no voice and certainly do not anticipate compassion from their accusers.  All wives live now in this manner, and share no rights with family; Men or the Sons of Men.

© Elizabeth Bathory