Page 88 of The Man with a Treasure

Holding her plastic cup, she walked around the couch. “I am going to watch TV. Is that okay with you?”

“Hey,” I bit. “I don’t deserve this disrespect.”

“Then what do you deserve? Be sure to instruct me when you are ready to be honest again because,” she screamed the next part, “I do not even know what disrespect is!”

My shoulders sulked. “Jesus. I’m sorry.”

From behind, Sal quietly spoke Italian to me, “Tell her how you are feeling.”

When I saw that Sal trying to help me had put him in the line of fire, I lifted my hands to Scarlett, trying to calm her. “I just don’t feel it is fair that you are mad at me.” I know Sal wanted me to express more, but that couldn’t be.

She balked, “Fair? I’m starting to suspect nothing about my life has been fair.” She grabbed a remote control from the coffee table. “And you two not being honest with me only confirms I am correct.” She plopped down on the couch, folding her legs into her lap.

Suddenly feeling drained, because she was absolutely correct, I took a seat in a captain’s chair. I was being a coward, pushing off all these explanations for her family because I didn’t want to be the one to rip apart her spirit with a horrid truth. “Scarlett—”

She glared.

“—please try to understand—”

“That’s all I’m trying to do! Don’t you see? I am asking my heart to continue to beat. I am begging myself to be brave and keep learning. I am doing all I can with what little I know.” She held up a hand to stop me. “No. If I have any say over my life, I am now saying I am done talking to you until you can say what I need to hear.” She turned on the TV. “And since you won’t answer questions I have, I will see if this thing,” she waved at the TV, “can teach me more.”

I exhaled, “Scarlett—”

Glare.

I raised my hands again, begging for a truce, then sat back in the chair, lifting my feet. I was confident there were no movies that would resemble her experiences. I would leave her alone for now.

Sal offered her a blanket. She accepted but sneered, “I am angry at you, too.”

He dipped his chin. “Let’s movie binge until you are ready to talk to me again.”

As Scarlett grumbled about not knowing what a ‘binge’ was, Sal stared at me while walking to the other captain’s chair. Even though he didn’t deserve her anger, he took the lashing for me.

If I were to fall, we were going to fall together.

Exhausted, Sal and I had fallen asleep so fast, I’m not sure if it took minutes or mere seconds. Either way, I woke to the saddest song.

Hearing Scarlett’s desolate tears was like listening to an angel losing her wings. You could hear the sorrow of the loss. Sometimes that happened with things Scarlett had to learn. A window would open and reveal that a part of her life had been epically tragic. Then she had to go through the process of mourning something she didn’t even know she had lived without.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew what she had realized.

Scarlett was pacing in front of the flat screen, her eyes locked on what was playing. Two actors, a woman and a man, making love.

A mewling sound was coming from Scarlett. She was in utter pain.

Pulling on Sal’s undershirt, she kept pacing, whispering, “Why? Why? Why?”

Knowing an epic meltdown was coming, Sal and I lowered our chairs and prepared.

Watching Sal slowly approach her, I knew I should have listened to him. I should’ve trusted that Scarlett was strong enough for the truth. We could have tried to manage her confusion. Now, she had been thrust into oblivion and wanted no one near her.

She shrugged off Sal’s touch.

If we thought she was angry before, we were in for an eye-opening experience. Scarlett’s eyes looked manic when she pointed to the TV. “Why do her tears look happy when that man has sex with her body?” Her legs kept walking her back and forth in front of that TV as if a caged animal. I think she was, or at least, she was learning how caged she truly had been.

I stood from the chair, wondering how many sad tears she had shed while her ‘fathers’ violated her. The thought was like standing inside a ring of the Devil’s cold fire.

I couldn’t take it and reached for the remote, but Scarlett seethed, “Don’t. You. Dare.”