Ben and Jarvis helped me up and walked me back into the living room. I could tell they were being extra nice to me, and I didn't know why. Frankly, I didn't even know why I was upset. All the same I snuggled back into my familiar spot on the couch and covered myself with the blanket. I tried to pull the blanket over my head so they wouldn't look at me, but Ben asked me if I needed more rest or if they could perhaps talk to me for a minute.
"Sure I guess so," I said. I propped my head up on some cushions which were propped against the arm of the couch. Ben was in his "papa chair" and Jarvis had pulled another chair in from the kitchen, so he could see my face. He was sitting between me and the fireplace.
"How are you feeling?" Asked my former husband.
"Terrible," I said truthfully. He looked at me, prompting me to elaborate.
"It's a lot," I said. Ben nodded, and Jarvis made a sound as if he was choking, but it seemed to be a sympathetic sort of choking.
"But you like this, right?" Asked Ben. He gestured so as to include everything that was happening around us, everything that was in our lives right now. "You like being treated like this...?"
That was a very difficult question for me to answer, and even though I knew he was being kind I still felt really put on the spot, and my heart started beating a mile a minute. I stammered a bit before I could respond.
"Y-yes. Yes Ben." I couldn't seem to catch my breath quite right, but I managed to whisper "yes I like it."
They both looked at me, grinning widely. And part of me was glad they were pleased, but something else caught me off guard, and with a huge, unexpected rush of emotion I burst into tears.
In a strange way I felt detached, as if I was watching this person Beth sobbing on the couch, but also it was me and I was really feeling these things, just as it had really been me being raped and tortured and humiliated from dawn until late into the night. I thought I was going to be asked why I was crying, but they just let me cry, nodding sympathetically. I cried for a long time. The sun was going down, and Ben finally stood up from his chair and shooed Jarvis to the side so he could build a fire. Jarvis stepped forward and handed me his handkerchief and then moved his chair. I blew my nose and wiped the tears out of my eyes before handing it back. It felt like none of us really knew what was going on.
Ben glanced at me over his shoulder. His hands were busy stacking the wood just so, so it would burn nicely. His voice was every bit as calm and authoritative as it ever had been. He was like a god to me, and he didn't even know it.
"I didn't think you would do it," he said. "I didn't think you would go through with it all."
I started crying again, but it didn't stop me from speaking. "I liked it," I said. "I really -- r e a l l y -- liked it." A tremor moved through me, a huge trembling wave of unfamiliar emotion.
"See I told you," said Jarvis quietly. "She's a one."
"Obviously," said Ben. "But that's not everything she is." He gave Jarvis a stern look. "You know I bet your 'Anal Annie' is dead by now," said Ben.
"Probably," agreed Jarvis.
"That's not what I have in mind for Beth."
The room was silent for awhile. The fireplace was against the west wall of our house, and on either side of it were large, west facing windows. I watched the sun set behind Jarvis. I had no idea what I could possibly say, or why they were talking to me as if I were a person right now, when it was obvious they didn't think of me as a person.
When the top arc of the sun finally disappeared beneath the lip of the horizon, I glanced over at Ben, and noticed that he was looking right at my eyes. Every time Ben looked me directly in the eyes I got nervous, even before all this happened, but especially now. His gaze was not cold, it was warm in its way, but it gave no ground. He was the foreman at work, and in fact he owned part of the company he worked for, and they made a lot of money because of him. He had no formal education, but he was strangely well-read, knew everything anybody did about the world and about politics, and knew absolutely everything there was to know about his craft, of which there was quite a lot you had to know and be in command of. HVAC guys make more than anyone else in the trades, barring elevator guys, and there is a lot more work for HVAC guys. Ben was heavy set, but strong as a bull: I had seen him lift an anvil onto the back of a truck by himself, and it wasn't one of those "travel anvils" either. Every time he looked right at my eyes I felt like I should look away, look down or something. I've never felt like I was worthy to meet his gaze straight on, and I've never minded deferring to him.
But this time it was like I couldn't look away. I wasn't allowed to look away. But also I didn't want to. Truth be told I cherished the connection I had with Ben, and I had never cared much that it wasn't a relationship between equals. I remembered hearing some Sunday morning preacher shouting "The husband is the head of the house!" in some atrocious sermon I overheard while channel surfing, and that phrase got caught in my head and I remember the preacher's exact inflection. I often repeated that phrase to myself, smiling secretly when Ben told me to do something as if I was a slave or an employee. He'd just bark orders at me and the fact is I liked it. "The husband is the head of the house," I'd say to myself. That's my secret truth, even though it's embarrassing to admit, even though it goes against everything I've ever heard about women's rights or feminism. Not only did I like it when Ben ordered me about, but it made me feel frisky.
I couldn't look away, and his eyes were just too much for me, it was a tremendously uncomfortable moment, but it meant something. Finally I burst into tears again, but this time I knew what I was crying about.
"Why did you DIVORCE ME!?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
I then wrenched my eyes away and turned entirely over on the couch, staring instead at the back of the couch and bawling like a child. I was embarrassing myself, and there was nothing sexy about it. But surprisingly Ben had an answer for me.
In the calmest, most authoritative voice you could possibly imagine, he said, "So I could own you." I abruptly stopped crying, and turned back around, wiping my eyes.