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LOVE SHOULDN'T HURT
by Terri Lynn Rasmussen
"Help me! Please!" Katie begged the 911 operator on the other end of the phone as blood and tears mixed and ran down her face. "My husband is trying to kill me." After he had thrown the first punch, she had run into their bedroom closet with their two young girls.
Joe had come home from work in a horrible mood and taken his lousy day out on his wife when his dinner was not on the table at six o'clock precisely. He called her a fat cow and told her she was good for nothing.
Katie had tried ignoring him and doing her best to please the man, but nothing had worked. Finally she had had enough of his insults and stood up for herself. Only to be met with his fist in her face. Blood poured from her lips. Thinking quick enough, she grabbed the cordless telephone, picked up her two girls and ran to the closet and locked them in. She could hear Joe throwing and breaking things all throughout the house. She called 911 and waited for someone to rescue her and her children.
While waiting for the police to arrive, she couldn't help but wonder what had gone wrong in hers and Joe's relationship to make him so violent and mean. In the early days of their relationship, Joe had been sweet, kind, loving and attentive to her. He would buy her gifts for no certain reason. Now since they married and had the two girls, his whole attitude had changed. Was it the drugs? She wondered as she held her daughters close to her chest. Katie had no idea. They were always short on money and bills were put off so he could get his fix.
Their children, Courtney, age 3 and Jenny, age 2 were going without now. They hadn't had new clothes to wear in almost a year. Everything they wore was hand me downs or bought at the second hand shop in town. Her husband stole from them to get high. Katie grew to hate and despise the man she once loved with her whole heart.
She had tried to take the girls and leave once until Joe tracked them down in a woman's shelter and threatened to kill them all, if she didn't return. She had no other choice, but to return to keep her daughter's safe.
This wasn't the first time she had called the police to come take him away. She couldn't even begin to count the number of times; she had made the very same call on days and nights much like this one. He would leave for awhile and come back with promises to change each time. Katie felt like an idiot for believing him. She kept telling herself it was for the girl's sake.
In the dark closet, crouched between the clothes and the wall, Courtney and Jenny clung to their crying and bleeding mother. Scared and crying, they could hear the sirens blaring down the street.
"They'll be here soon, mommy." Courtney told her mother through sobs.
Katie realized she should be the one comforting the small children and not the other way around. She forced her tears to stop and held her daughters a little closer to her heart.
Outside, she could hear the police banging on the door and yelling at Joe to open the door.
Katie could hear Joe open the door and reply, "evening officers," Like nothing was wrong.
"We had a call from someone claiming domestic abuse." One of the cops told Joe.
Joe spoke matter-of-factly, "That would be my crazy wife. She has these fits often." He never failed to blame Katie for their problems. They were never his fault.
"Can we see her?" One of the officer's asked.
True to form, Joe lied, "She's gone."
"We'll take a look around then. Just to be sure." Having been called to the same house on other occasions, the cop knew Joe was lying.
"Come on in." Joe replied as he held the door open for the men in uniform. "Wanna beer?" He asked in a slurred tone from one too many beers.
Both the officer's declined his offer citing they were on duty and walked into the living room and found the worst mess they had ever seen in their lives. The room looked like a tornado had blown thru. Chairs were over turned, food thrown across the room and dishes and glasses were broken. They stepped over the mess and looked around.
"Sir, where's your wife?" The younger of the two cops asked.
"I don't know. If you can find her, keep her. She's a good for nothing fat whore." Joe replied bitterly.
Instincts told the officers that Joe was high on something or either suffered from some kind of mental illness. They would have to handle him very carefully after noticing the aluminum baseball bat in the corner. Someone like him would and would go off at any minute.
One of the officer's heard a child's cry from the back of the house. He followed the sound after telling his partner he would go check it out. As he walked through the hallway, the sounds grew louder. He stepped into the bedroom and opened the closet door, only to find two sets of little legs next to a woman's body.
"Ma'am, it's the police. You can come out." He reached a hand out to hers to help her up.
Katie took his hands while her daughters clung to her legs. Slowly she made her way out of the closet. "Is he gone?" She asked in a stutter. Her lip had begun to swell.
"No ma'am. Do you want him to leave?" He asked as he ran his eyes up and down Katie.
Blood dripped from Katie's mouth and nose. Bright purple bruises decorated her jaw bone. He figured her nose and jaw were broken. The officer had seen one too many domestic abuse calls and could almost tell what kind of injuries someone had just by looking.
"Yes. Please." She cried.
"Keep the girls in the closet. They don't need to see their father carted off to jail." He told her.
"No. They'll stay with me." What could be worse than seeing their mother beaten to a pulp? Not much else, she thought to herself.
Almost tiptoeing with the girls beside of her, Katie made her way to the living room only to hear Joe yelling at the officer.
"I work hard, make decent money for her to stay home and eat Bon-Bon's all day and look at this mess. Is it too much for me to expect to come home to a nice dinner and the house cleaned? Instead of getting some slop I wouldn't feed to a pig?" He ranted and raved calling Katie names. "My name is on the lease. The bitch should be the one to leave."
The officer that had been talking to Joe took one look at Katie and grabbed her handcuffs from behind her waist. "Sir, you're under arrest." She yelled at him as she spun him around and tried to place the handcuffs on his wrists.
"What the hell for?" Joe asked as he faced his wife and the cop.
": For spousal abuse and attempted murder."
"Hell no. I ain't going anywhere." He began to fight back.
"Sir, this would go much easier if you would calm down some. You don't want to make it worse by adding resisting arrest to the charges." The cop tried to explain rationally to Joe as he pushed him up against the wall.
"Fine. I'll be out before dark anyway." Joe snarled at them. "I'm going to kill you and that bitch that I married."
The cop began to read him his Miranda rights. "Shut up!"
Katie stood and watched as Joe made his threats and wondered if there was some place she could go with the girls. Some place safe and where he would never find them. She had no family and of course, his family would side with him. They always had. Her daughter's began to wail with fright and horror written all over their faces.
"Mommy!" Jenny cried.
"It's okay." Katie tried to comfort her daughter.
Joe was pushed out the door. Before he could reach the door he stopped and spat in Katie's face. "When I get home, I expect this mess to be cleaned up. Maybe then, I'll decide not to kill you."
Katie felt his breath on her face and she jumped back from him.
The cop pushed Joe harder until he was out the door and he fell on his behind. He noticed a beer bottle he could use as a weapon. He picked it up and broke the glass against the concrete driveway. He stood and rushed the cop and stabbed her in the gut. He laughed out loud at the cop's mistake of putting the handcuffs on in front and not behind his back. Quickly, he ran back inside and rushed Katie with the broken beer bottle.
The bottle pierced her stomach as well and she dropped to the floor. He stood over her, kicking her and stabbing her in the chest. Blood oozed out of Katie so fast, she turned white almost immediately. She tried to scream but found she couldn't. With each stab to the chest she became still and quietly began drifting away.
The officer that had been trying to distract her daughter's in the kitchen heard the commotion and saw Joe standing over his wife and slowly killing her. Acting on adrenaline, he pulled his gun out of the holster on his side and shot Joe right in the heart.
He rushed the young girls into the bathroom so they wouldn't have to see anymore of the horror playing out in their home. He called for back up and an ambulance to help with the wounded into his radio.
Joe fell on top of Katie. Dead.
The officer ran to their side and rolled Joe off of Katie. He had never seen someone so pale in his life. Katie's blue eyes looked up at him full of sorrow and regret. He checked for a pulse. It was weak at best. He knew she didn't have long before she would be dead too.
"Everything is going to be okay." He tried to assure her. Emotion choked his words.
In her final breath, Katie whispered. "Tell my girl's, love shouldn't hurt." She closed her eyes for the last time and found peace at last.
The End
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