The Bruise

Short story for my creative writing group this week. Theme is Dawn.

365 Days of Creativity

day twenty three

I looked at her face, swollen and bloody from angry fists. Her lip split, her eye the colour of crushed blueberries. She was as beautiful as ever. The pain must have been unbearable, but she didn’t cry. She never cried.

“What was it this time?” I asked gently.

Jodie swept her hair behind her ear and shook her head. “It was my fault, I forgot about the crusts.”

“The crusts?”

She smiled sadly, “I forgot to cut the crusts off the bread.”

I exhaled, bewildered. “You didn’t cut the crust off a sandwich? That’s what triggered this?!”

“It’s ok!” She put her hand on my knee, “I should have paid more attention.”

I brushed her away, “It’s unbelievable, I won’t stand for it.”

Jodie’s hands twisted her shirt hem nervously. “What are you going to do?”

The window was open wide. Soft cotton curtains buffeted in the wind. A crisp blue sky was broken up by popcorn clouds. Air was never found sweeter than it was on the mountain. I moved to the window sill and gazed at the green sea of shimmering grass.

“I don’t know.” The breeze tousled my hair.

Jodie stood up and walked to my side. Her breathe was sweet as summer rain. “I’m going to make some coffee, you want some?”

I shook my head. My stomach could never keep anything down after Jodie got a beating. There was nothing I cared for in the world more than her, yet I was always witness to her pain. Jodie was that deadly combination of loving and strong. Someone who would eternally carry the burden of other’s pain, and bear the weight with a smile.

That was the curse of having a kind heart. The willingness- no - the need to help others. To make a difference, to see the smile on the bullied child’s face, to hold the disturbed man and take the cripple as a lover. Jodie has it, my mother had it, and both are too quick to care. The troubled are not always worthy of love.

The grass was blown into waves, billowing ribbons that led away from the house. Even nature ran away from me. Everyone left, everyone ran, everyone but Jodie. It was her heart that held me together, and her heart that allowed me to tear her apart.

I couldn’t put her through it anymore. My thoughts were broken by the clinking of a spoon against ceramic. I turned and watched this beautiful woman. My strength.

I crossed the room and slid my hands down her shoulders. I wrapped my arms around her and held her softly. She sighed and leaned into my chest.

She wouldn’t leave me, she couldn’t. But I could leave her.

“Jodie...” I whispered into her cloud of hair. “I can’t stay here anymore.”

She spun around. “What?”

“I have to leave, I can’t keep hurting you like this.”

“But it’s not your fault! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Her eye’s burrowed fiercely into mine.

“You’ve helped me, carried me for so long. I can’t put that on you anymore.” I traced her cheek with a finger. My bloody knuckles left a crimson line on her pale skin.

“You’re sick.. you need me. How are you going to live on your own?”

“No Jodie,” I shook my head, “You need me. You need someone to help. What I need is to be alone.”

She sputtered, hurt and confused, “But it’s not safe for you to live alone! You could hurt yourself.”

I took her chin and tilted it towards me. “And that, is infinitely better than me hurting you.”

And that’s when Jodie knew I meant it. Her eyes went wide, her brow softened, and her lip slowly, ever so slowly started to tremble. I leaned in and kissed her, the blood from her wounded lips left a salty, bitter sweet taste in my mouth. As I pulled away I saw the glistening of heart broken tears on her face.

I smiled, “You were the only one who could ever guide me through the darkness, and it’s a new day now.”