His Lily of The Valley

The Nightmare

"I said clean it up bitch!" Robert yelled as he slapped me hard. My vision blurred, but I was still awake. It seemed he learned a long time ago how hard he could hit me before knocking me out. Blinking a few times I looked around to make sure that Anne and Danny had gone to the crawl space under the house like I had taught them. Letting out a breath of relief I stumbled closer to the mess on the floor. Robert had thrown his bowl of stew across the room, splattering the wall and knocking small jars of salves and herbs to the floor with the stew. I slipped and fell hard on my knee while broken bits of glass dug into my palms. "I can't believe I even agreed to marry such a sorry excuse for a woman. At least I got this farm out of the deal." He sneered. "Come next week this shitty piece of land will finally give me what I want. I've sold this shit hole. Bob Sharin and I will meet the town attorney next Monday. I think I might just get rid of you and send those snot nosed kids to and orphanage. Get myself a good woman who knows how to please a man." He says as he kicks me in the ribs hard. Stopping long enough to take a drink out of the bottle of whiskey he brought home with him. 

As he continued to shout his rage I frantically looked for something to defend myself with. On my hands and knees; slipping in stew and blood from my wounds. Lying on the floor near my hand was a crock that I used to store butter. It wasn't much but it was all I had. Fear ripped through me, he had never been so brutal before. As he came closer I swung my arm with all my might. The butter crock hit him hard in the shoulder knocking him off balance. Stumbling backward, Robert tripped over the stew bowl that was still lying on the floor. His head came down hard on the hearth; I could hear the sound of his skull cracking. Blood quickly pooled around him, his cold dead eyes looking straight at me.

Lily startles awake. She looks around franticly as her heart races. Cold sweat makes her blouse cling to her skin. As she realizes that it was all just a nightmare of that faithful day her breathing slows. Will I ever be rid of this horrible nightmare, she wonders. Trying to remind herself that she had survived, and that her children had survived. She had buried Robert that next morning. She went to town and met with Bob Sharin and the town attorney as Robert had planned. When they asked where Robert was she told him that he became ill with a fever and died rather suddenly. As many folks in town had also been stricken with a fever it was believable. She went ahead and sold the property, knowing that she couldn't continue to live there with the memory of Robert. So she loaded what she could into a small wagon and bought a few supplies. She and the children were going to head out west and begin a new life.