Little Wife peeked quickly at her phone on the countertop as she prepared breakfast for Big Man. There was a message from a friend who she was not supposed to have any contact with. Big Man had warned her not to communicate with her or there would be serious consequences. The message simply read, “Turn…
Little Wife was looking in the old photo album the other day. She usually loved to look at the pictures of when she and her friends were young children and teenagers. What fun they had together, playing and running and riding their bikes and building tree houses in the woods with the other children and…
Little Wife set her empty wine glass on the kitchen table and gazed sadly out the window at the falling snow. The weak mid-January sunlight filtered through the cold clouds barely reaching the ground before dissolving into another gray afternoon. “Well,” she thought to herself, “If I’ve had one glass and broke my new year…
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” Little Wife whispered to herself. With just two days left before Christmas, Little Wife was in a terrible bind. She wanted to buy the perfect gift for Big Man, but the stores were all out of the popular tech gifts, the 3X buffalo plaid flannels, his favorite vinyls and vintage whiskey. Little…
Little Wife truly didn’t intend to cause so much embarrassment and discomfort to Big Man. She had a good heart and was only trying to be as helpful and loving as possible. But sometimes things happen…. It was a sunny morning and Little Wife was preparing the breakfast for Big Man. He enjoyed his handheld…
I’ve been thinking much about justice this week. I’ve encountered the justice system in two separate counties of Illinois and found great differences in how abused women were heard and helped. There does not seem to be a standard of justice when it comes to domestic abuse. Often it comes down to “he said, she…
The basement of Big Man’s farmhouse was very dark and very damp. Spiders, centipedes and creepy crawlers ruled in this part of the grim home, but even still, Little Wife felt safer here than in any other part of the house. Curled up down here on the cold cement slab, she could hear and not…
First there was the Courting of Little Wife. All the pretty promises, all the exotic and romantic candlelit dinners, the gifts beyond reason, the shopping trips with unlimited budgets, the Broadway shows where Little Wife was dressed to impress. Oh the grandeur, oh the glory, oh the love! Little Wife was the princess in the…
Little Wife wasn’t always little. She remembered a day when she stood tall, slim and proud in her lacy Victorian wedding dress. She remembered being pretty and funny, clever and smart. She was confident in herself and sure of her plans. All her hopes and dreams were coming true. If she had an idea, Little…
Little Wife crawled into the super-sized, California King-sized bed. Because the bed was pushed up snugly next to the wall, and the ceiling came down at an extremely sharp angle, she had to crawl into the bed from the bottom. Big Man was already dead asleep in the large bed, sprawled out on his back,…