Chris took a step closer and leaned forward, invading her space. “What’s the point of a phone if you just leave it here and take off with no notice?”
“I forgot it one time,” she said.
“Even when you do bring your phone, you just leave it sitting on a counter somewhere and I can’t get a hold of you. Why should I pay for a second line if I can’t reach you anyway?”
“Chris, you’re being unreasonable.”
“I’mbeing unreasonable?” He was shouting now, loud enough that Laurie reached up and surreptitiously turned off her hearing aids. She glanced at the kitchen door, hoping that Mia was too absorbed with her cartoons in the living room to hear him.
“You’re never even home anymore!” he raged. “You’re gallivanting all over the island, pouring my hard-earned money into the gas tank and burning it up. Maybe this will keep you where you belong. Here. At home. With us.”
“I’malwayshere!” Her eyes burned with tears that were more rage than grief.
Laurie had tried to placate him. She cooked three meals a day and kept the house clean. She only left the property to walk Mia to and from school, and she never left Hawi except for maybe once a week to visit her family.
Nothing she did seemed to matter. He had been cold and distant all summer – until she took Mia camping without his permission, and he finally exploded. She had been grateful, in that moment, that Mia was still at school when he started shouting. It was terrifying to see her husband lose his temper like that.
She’d apologized profusely for leaving her phone at home, but it hadn’t softened his heart in the least. All those days and nights of trying to repair things hadn’t made the slightest dentin his resentment… or his suspicions. She’d caught him going through the messages on her phone more than once.
“I need a phone,” she insisted.
“You don’t work,” he said, goading her. “We have internet here at the house.”
“What if Mia’s school tries to contact me?”
“They have my number.”
“What if you’re working down in Kona?”
“I can message you here. You’re on your computer all day anyway.” There was a strange edge to his voice, like their WiFi might be the next thing to go.
The thought of being completely cut off from the rest of the world made her go cold with fear.
“What about when I’m not at home?” she tried.
“And where do you have to go, exactly? You don’t work. I’m the one who does everything around here. I work like a dog while you’re off flitting around with God only knows who. I’m sick of it!”
She flinched away from the rage in his eyes.
Even though she wasn’t looking at him, he continued to shout. Laurie could hear some of the noise that he was making, but it was muted. Without her hearing aids, nothing came through loud enough to bother her… but the way he threw his arms around, the contorted expression on his face, seeing him so out of control when he was usually so precisely controlled… that was scary.
She turned away, blocking him out entirely – and that’s when she saw her daughter.
Mia was hiding beneath the kitchen table, eyes screwed shut, hands clasped over her ears, and the sight of her daughter’s fear hit Laurie like a punch to the gut.
A memory of early childhood washed over her. It was from when she was very young, smaller than Mia – before her hearingloss. She remembered cowering just like that, hiding from one of her mother’s boyfriends, and she recalled with perfect clarity how the sounds of their shouting and banging landed on her like blows.
She spun to face her husband. “You’re scaring Mia.”
He kept shouting, too far gone to hear her.
Laurie stepped closer, putting her face in front of his, and spoke in a steady voice: “Stop shouting. You’re scaring our daughter.”
He grabbed a fistfull of her curls and yanked her forwards.
A sudden terror seized her. Chris had never laid hands on her like this. Not ever. But his eyes were wild now, mad beyond all reason.
Laurie bit her tongue until it bled, but she refused to cry out. She wouldn’t scare her daughter any further by voicing her own pain. Silently, she prayed that Mia’s eyes were still screwed shut, that she couldn’t see how Chris was hurting her.
