Tough Love by Martha Williamson

Author:Martha Williamson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

It was not easy for Monica to make herself go back to Elizabeth’s house the next morning. The vehemence and fury of the older woman’s anger seemed to still hang in the air and Monica could still hear Elizabeth’s outraged voice in her ears. She stepped gingerly into the house, peering around the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth so she could announce herself rather than barge into the house without an invitation.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is there anyone here?” She could barely see into the darkened house. “Elizabeth . . . Are you in there? It’s me, Monica.”

Monica took a tentative step into the house. It was silent and still and had a shut-in, airless quality. There was a heavy smell of stale cigarette smoke. She took another step inside. “Elizabeth . . . ?”

Elizabeth did not answer. Monica walked into the house and stopped. At her feet were the two letters that Sydney and Beth had written to explain their feelings toward Elizabeth and her drinking problem. She knelt down and picked up the letters. Sydney’s was written out in a neat script that could have been a perfect facsimile of her mother’s own handwriting. Monica could not help but read a few lines:

. . . those birthdays and Christmases. I understood you could not be there. I was proud of you and your job. Back in 1978—what was I, nine? Ten? I knew you had to leave. You had no reason to hate yourself or to resent me. That was our life back then and I accepted it. Today, Mother, it’s a different story. Your drinking is going to kill you. But before it kills you it’s going to kill our family . . .

Monica recognized the truth in the words and she knew that they came directly from Sydney’s heart. She knew that Sydney was forcing herself and her mother to face the truth no matter how harsh that truth might be. It simply had to be done.

Beth’s crumpled paper was even more heart-wrenching. The little girl had drawn a series of pictures in crayon, each alive with the straightforward honesty of a child and with exceptional clarity of purpose no matter how crudely executed. One bright drawing, a riot of orange and purple, showed a woman stretched out on a couch fast asleep as a little girl valiantly tried to awaken her. A caption read, “Grandma won’t wake up and play.” Another showed the three Jessup women gathered around the dinner table. A large, half-empty pitcher was clearly labeled “iced tea” and the white tube in Elizabeth’s hand was marked “cigarette” followed by a bracketed word, bad. An arrow pointed to Sydney and she was marked “Mommy.” Mommy did not look happy. Neither did the figure of the little girl, marked “Me.” The next picture depicted the scene that occurred a few days earlier when Elizabeth knocked the birthday cake from the arms of the waiter at the restaurant. The drawing indicated

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.