The sin eater 2

The wife stood there in her garden surrounded by dead flowers.  Her viciousness had bled out into the air and killed all the flowers. She turned around, her expression sour.  ‘You came’ she said, stating her obvious displeasure.

We were ushered into a small room. We told our hosts of our bad luck of late.  That this situation was only for two weeks until we could sort our lives out. We felt terrible, like a burden. Our hearts were heavy. We were so grateful for any help.  And so, we were reassured that we were ‘family’ and ‘don’t worry everything will get better’.   

   

The truth however was different. As the week progressed the wife got infinitely worse. The controlling, the blaming, the judging. At some stage the wife lashed out and physically hit my husband. My husband, who cannot kill a fly.  We felt trapped and I felt embarrassed. This was my family and this was how they were treating us. I hunkered down. I took it. The blame, the innuendoes, the embarrassment, the shame. I didn’t argue. On the last night we were there I sat down and I ate from her table. I ate because I was their sin eater.