LESSON :: Beatings

        One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
        Stop.
        Breathe.
        Close your eyes.
        One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
        Stop. Breathe.
        Close your eyes, tighter.
        One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
        Stop.
        Breathe.
        Grit your teeth.
        Clamp down on your jaw until you feel your molars about to shatter.
        One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Sev—
        “STOP!”
        Eight…
        “Please…”
        Nine…
        “Please stop…”
        Ten.
        Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot.
        Door creaks open.
        Right foot. Left foot. Right foot.
        Door creaks shut.
        Click
        Bolt-locked.
        The room is dark. A slice of sunlight cuts across the stuccoed-ceiling. A small sliver of exposed window, facing the East. It must be early or mid morning, then. It’s bright sunlight. So it’s got to be early morning. There isn’t that dullness to the glow. No yellow, really. More like stark white.
        Why did she say anything? She didn’t have to say it. She shouldn’t have said it. But the words just spilled out from her lips. They moved on dark wings, circling his head four times, before slipping into his ears.
        All she said was three words. That’s all. “Criminal” and “a” and “you’re.”
        But not in that order.
        She just stepped out of the shower. Shivering and wrapping the towel around her body as tightly as possible. He was sitting on the bed, timing her. He laughed at her.
Before she could stop herself, before she even knew what she was about to do, her lips parted, her vocal chords exploded, and she screamed at him: “You’re a criminal!”
        He sat on the bed, staring at her for a minute. He looked confused, for a moment. She watched the three words on their little hellish wings circle his head, taunting and teasing her. And then, when they disappeared into his ears, his confusion was lost to rage.
        The towel was torn from her body. It took him a total of ten seconds to wrap the thing around her throat. He pulled her back against his front, pulling the ends of the towel harder, tightening the fabric around her throat.
        She coughed and struggled. He laughed and tightened the towel. She was starting to get dizzy. She remembered something.
        As he tightened the towel even more, she forced her body to go limp. He wasn’t expecting that. They both fell forward. She felt something in the back of her head. It was his chin. She smiled at that, swallowing as much air as she possibly could—while she had the chance.
        He didn’t say anything. She turned around—still naked—deciding suddenly to kick his ass into next week.
        He was faster, though. And stronger. And better prepared.
        He pulled a small club—really, it was a bit of hockey stick he’d cut off—and started hitting her with it.
        He attacked her legs, chest, arms, ribs, stomach, feet. Everything.
        He hit her ten times. Caught his breath. And started again.
        She tried to catch the club, to pull it from him. He stopped that with a quick and harsh collision between the thick and strong club, and her bare knuckles.

        Now, lying on the floor in their bedroom, she stares up at the shard of light slicing its way across the ceiling, slowly becoming shorter and shorter.
        There is reason to move from her spot. There’s also no way to do that. She can feel parts of her body pulsing painfully. She can feel other parts of her body swelling. And, still others, she can’t feel at all.
        He steps into the room again, and lies down beside her. He wraps his arm over her stomach, caressing left hip gently. And, as he nuzzles her neck with the stubble on his chin, he whispers, “I’m sorry. I love you. Please…I’m sorry I lost my temper.”
        She doesn’t reply to him. She can’t. She lies there, her mind falling into the darkness of unconsciousness. Again.
        He was always teaching her new things—at least one new lesson every day. Today, it was to never speak, never fight, and never listen.