I’m not running anyone.
I just want us to live a normal, peaceful life.”
The word normal was the match to the powder.
I won’t relive what happened next in detail; I’ve worked too hard to stop hearing it.
It is enough to say that she struck me, and then she shoved me, and that I went backward over the raised threshold and my head found the corner of the entryway cabinet on the way down.
When I opened my eyes I was on the cold tiles, and I was bleeding, and I was hurt in a way I understood immediately was serious.
What I remember most clearly is not the pain.
It’s that no one moved.
Marlene stood over me and, after one flicker of real fear, decided to be outraged instead.
“Stop pretending,” she said.