Linda's Story

Peter Losin' Wendy

Linda was walking back from the kitchen after taking two sinus pills. It was raining cats and dogs outside, so she chalked the headache up to the nasty weather. Just as she was heading for the stairs, she saw a figure in her living room.

She should run; she should run up the stairs as quietly and as quickly as she could; she should get her husband who knows how to deal with these things. But she didn't. She recognized the way the person walked, and she was certain she knew who those curse words belonged to. "Wendy?"

The intruder whipped around, "hey, sis."

"What're you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Linda?" Danny called as he walked down the stairs. His wife had been gone from bed too long, so he came to investigate.

"I've left him," Wendy sniffed and shrugged.

"Left who?"

"Peter," Linda answered, putting her thermos down on the nearest table. She switched the light on next to the couch, and walked to Wendy. Guiding her sister to sit down, she asked, "what happened? I thought you and he worked everything out."

"We had! But then he decided it was worth throwing all that away to shack up with some blonde bimbo. So I packed up Sophie and got the hell out."

"Where is Sophie?"

"At Grandma's. I didn't... didn't trust Mom with my daughter, and I couldn't stay with Grandma."

"Why not?"

"The same reason you can't stay with Mom if he ever cheated on you!"

"Ohhh... yeah."

Danny tapped Linda's shoulder, giving her a confused look.

"Nonna doesn't much care for Peter, the same way Marni doesn't care for you."

"Ah." He sat down in the armchair across from the couch.

"I came here because I knew you wouldn't turn me away," Wendy grasped Linda's hand, holding back the tears that want to fall.

"You're always welcome here," she rubbed her sister's shoulder.

"How could he do that to me? To us?!" Her tears started to come, "The jerk promised to love me forever! And what does he do? He goes sticks his... dick into the first bimbo he sees!"

"For someone with two heads, he sure is stupid," Danny put his two cents in.

Wendy looked at her brother in law with fire in her eyes. "F***, Daniel!" She bolted off the couch and ran up the stairs.

"Wendy!" Linda started to go after her when Danny lightly grabbed her arm. She turned to him and sighed, "okay, this is why you work with criminals."

"I was making a joke!" He defended himself. "I was trying to get her to laugh! You would've laughed. You did- I saw you hold it in."

"You know what, Danny? I don't know if I would laugh if I found you in our bed with a blonde bimbo, and Joe's only anecdote was 'for a guy with two heads, he sure is dumb'." She shook her head, "I gotta go find my sister."

*********

"Wendy?" Linda found her older sister in the master bedroom. She sat down next to her, rubbed her shoulder. "You're soaked."

"I know. My car broke down a mile or so from your house."

"So you walked all that way in the rain?"

"In slippers!" She broke down in tears, collapsing into her baby sister's arms.

She whispered "it's okay" and "you're okay" over and over again until Wendy's tears stopped. "You must be chilled to the bone!"

She nodded, feeling pathetic. How could she be so stupid?! She should've known Peter was a no good, low down, cheating, sneaky, pathetic son of a bitch!

"Here," Linda stood and walked to the dresser. She rooted through her pajama drawer, until she found what she was looking for. She handed Wendy the long, warm nightgown. "You can wear this. Take a hot shower, get warmed up, then come sit on the bed, and we can talk."

Wendy looked at the conservative nightgown, "don't you have anything smaller?"

"Yes, I do. But not for you. You're soaking wet! You could catch pneumonia! Go take your shower- you can even use my hair dryer afterwards."

She walked to the en-suite, and as she was closing the door, Linda's voice stopped her.

"Wendy!" Linda stood next to the door. "You're not... gonna hurt yourself... are you?"

"You mean cut myself?" She laughed when her sister nodded. "Please, Linda. I'm upset and beyond pissed, but I'm not demented!"

Linda hoped Wendy missed the slight blush that came to her cheeks, "I know; I'm just.. making sure."

She offered a small smile and lightly grasped Linda's upper arm before closing the door behind her.

********

"So Wendy's gonna stay the night," Linda told her husband as she came back downstairs. "She's in the shower now, getting warmed up."

"I didn't mean anything by what I said-"

"I know, sweetie. I know. And while I thoroughly agree with you, it probably wasn't the best thing to say to her."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Not yet.... Danny? Do you think I'm demented?"

"Demented? No. Why would you ask that?"

She shrugged, "just something Wendy said."

"You let her into our house at one in the morning, and she calls you demented?" He had anger in his voice.

"No. I... before she went into the bathroom, I asked her if she was planning to do something drastic. Like cut herself... she said she was pissed, but not demented... does that- am I-?"

Danny knew what she was trying to ask, "no, honey, no. You're not demented for doing that." He held her tightly, "don't ever think that."

She felt better after he kissed her forehead, "it's just... I'd probably kill myself if I ever found you in bed with someone who wasn't me."

"That'll never happen, I swear to you. It'll never happen."

"I know, you're not that kind of guy." But a part of me wonders, stayed in her brain.

***********

"So what happened?" Linda asked Wendy after the shower.

She sniffed again, "I came home from picking Sophie up from her sleepover, because she was feeling sick. After I got her to bed, I walked into my room, and found.. him... in bed with some bimbo! I caught him in the act!"

"What did you do?"

"The only thing I could. I called him every name in the book and tossed his and her clothes out the window. Then I stormed out of there, took Sophie and her duffle bag, and went to Grandma's. Then I came here."

"Have you told Nonna yet?"

"I didn't have to. She guessed right away. She said she'd keep Sophie for the night, and feed her a good breakfast... I just left."

"You're always welcome here, Wendy."

"You're better off, you know," Danny said from his corner of the room. The sisters looked at him, "he was holding you down, Wendy. Crushing your potential. You'll go on to do great things."

Wendy nodded, "if it's all the same to you, I'd like to be alone now."

Linda was happy to go back to sleep, "of course. The guest room is yours for as long as you need."

She hugged Linda, gave a small smile to Danny, then left the room. Once she closed the guest room door, Linda spoke up.

"That was sweet, what you said about her doing great things. I think she may have needed to hear that."

Danny sat on the bed next to Linda, put an arm around. "And it's very sweet of you to take her in at an ungodly hour."

"She's my sister, I love her."