My brother Richard was born in 1950 and I in '55. We didn't play together as kids and we didn't share the same friends. I was never known as Dave, I was 'Richard Jr'. We both resembled each other, although there was nothing special about us. As we were growing up, he was taller than me, smarter than I was, more athletic and charismatic. The teachers in school used to compare me to him all the time and I always found myself on the short end of the stick. I never hated him for it. He was just being Richard.
One thing that I envied him about was his ability to always have a girlfriend or two or three. They were all great looking and they all had huge breasts.
I, on the other hand, couldn't find a date with any girl. I even went to the prom alone.
I just didn't have Richard's charm.
By the time I was graduating high school, Richard had finished college and was actively seeking a teaching position. He majored in French and History and landed a position in our old school district and thus able to get his own apartment. No sooner did he move in, he managed to find a live-in girlfriend. He invited me over one evening to celebrate his new job and to meet his new girl.
Her name was Elaine. She was about 5' 5" tall, brown shoulder length hair, brown eyes, a little on the chunky side and had tremendous breasts. Although she matched the overall criteria that Richard used to pick his girls, there was something a bit off about Elaine. When I spoke to her, she chuckled a lot but didn't really answer any of my questions. Sometimes Richard answered them for her.
I thought she might be deaf, but at one point she jumped at the sound of Richard dropping a pot in the kitchen. When she finally did speak, she sounded a bit childish. When I got up to get a soda, I noticed a shopping list stuck to the refrigerator door. It was obviously in her handwriting since I had seen my brother's all my life. It looked like a grade school kid wrote it. It finally dawned on me that Elaine might be slow.
When I went back into the living room I decided to find out. I waited for Richard to go to the bathroom and I hit her with a bunch of questions all at once. She managed to answer them all, but took an unusually long time to do so. She had to think about every answer. It was like taking an hour and a half to watch '60 minutes'. Elaine wasn't stupid, just slow.
When she used the bathroom, I asked Richard about her. He confirmed that she was a bit slow, but he just couldn't resist her in the sack. As long as she was putting out, she could stay with him.
I listened to him in disbelief. As long as she put out? He was able to date anyone he wanted. They all flocked to him. He was now narrowing it down to who put out the most? I still couldn't find any real relationship with girls. I'd managed to date some but most were a one-date wonder, meaning they were wondering why they bothered to date me at all. As the evening ended, I wished them luck and Elaine gave me a hug as I left. As I drove home, my thoughts went to Elaine. I knew that sooner or later she was going to get tossed out when Richard got tired of her, and someone new that 'put-out' came along. I felt sorry for her not being able to see it coming.
* * *
Three colleges I sent applications to turned me down. I had a choice. I could apply again to other schools and work till I was accepted at one, or start the following fall in the community college. Unlike Richard, my chosen career path was Business Management. I'd worked in a supermarket since I turned 16 and had advanced about as far as I could without a degree. I decided to work and wait for acceptance at a better school. In the mean time, I was making good money without anything to spend it on. I pretty much saved every dime I had made to that point and had a little over $5,000 in the bank (a huge sum for an 18 year old kid in '73). When the next five schools turned me down, I decided to get an apartment myself. I wound up getting an apartment in the same building as Richard. Not that it was planned, it just happened that way.
Over the fall, we got together and watched the Eagles lose every Sunday and Elaine would be there, laughing at all the wrong things and still managing to be as sweet as could be.
On Christmas Eve, they invited me over for dinner, so I went after finishing work and a fast change in my own apartment. When I arrived, I noticed that the mood had changed and Elaine was not her usual self. As the evening progressed, I could tell that it was the beginning of the end for her. Richard never talked to her directly, and she never sat near him. In fact, she spent more time fussing over me than him. At one point the phone rang and Richard answered it in the kitchen. I could hear him say "hey, baby" and "love you, too". I looked at Elaine and could tell she had heard it as well.
"Time to leave!" I said as I hopped up and headed out. "Merry Christmas!" I said as I closed the door.
* * *
Around one in the morning, I had a knock at my door. I never had any visitors so I assumed it was someone knocking on the wrong door.
The person was persistent.
After they knocked six different times, I finally got up, put on a robe and answered the door. There stood Elaine with blood coming out of her mouth, a swelling eye and what appeared to be a broken nose. She had no coat on and was still in the same clothes I saw her in earlier in the evening. In her hand was a piece of paper with my apartment number, written in her own choppy writing.
"Oh my God, Elaine!" I said in shock.
"Can I come in?" she asked, shaking.
I put my arm around her and walked her over to my sofa and had her sit. I went to the closet and got a spare blanket and wrapped her in it. She looked awful! I knew my brother had a temper. I found that out the hard way growing up with him. I knew he even slugged our Dad once, but I never dreamed he was capable of doing this.
"Do you want me to take you to the hospital? It's five minutes down the road." I asked, very concerned.
She shook her head.
"What happened?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"He hit me."
"I know that, Elaine. Why did he hit you?"
A moment went by and then she replied, "After you left, I asked him who was on the phone. He wouldn't tell me. Then he left for a while. When he came back, he had a..." she pointed to her neck.
"A hickey?" I asked.
She nodded her head. "I asked him who he went to see. He called me a fucking moron and told me to shut up. When I asked him again, he told me to get out. I told him I had nowhere to go and he hit me and hit me until I left."
'Merry Christmas', I thought to myself.
"Look, Elaine, I think I should take you to the hospital. Your nose looks broken."
Again, she shook her head and pulled the blanket tighter around her.
"Okay. Let me at least clean the wounds a bit."
She nodded her head and I got the first aid kit and an ice bag.
She held the bag over her eye, as I looked at her other wounds. She was turning purple all over her face as I examined her busted lip. He had hit her so hard, that one of her teeth had almost gone right through. After cleaning up the blood I turned my attention to her nose. I squeezed the bridge of it and she didn't react. When I touched lower she flinched. She had a simple busted nose, nothing serious. It was swelling, but it was still strait. I gave her some aspirin and asked if she wanted to go to sleep. She nodded and I took her to my bed. I tried to sleep on the couch, but the anger i felt toward my brother prevented that from happening.
* * *
Late Christmas Morning I checked on her and she was still asleep. I didn't have any decorations up because I didn't actually expect company. Now I wished I would have at least gotten a small tree.
I made some coffee and soon she was sitting at the kitchen table, looking even worse than a few hours ago. Her eye was now swollen shut and turning into a massive shiner and the right side of her face was fully bruised. She kept shifting a bit in her seat and I asked her why. She pulled open her shirt at the shoulder and showed me a bruise that went from her neck all the way down to her upper arm. Then she stood and turned her back to me and lifted her shirt up to reveal several bruises on her lower back.
I felt sick to my stomach.
After she drank her coffee I asked her if she was hungry. She nodded and I started breakfast. While I was cooking, I decided to ask a few questions.
"Elaine, where do your parents live?"
"They're dead."
"Any aunts or uncles?"
She slowly shook her head.
"How about brothers or sisters?"
She kept shaking her head.
"Where did you live before you lived with Richard?"
"I stayed with other people like me at a state school."
I wasn't getting anywhere, so I changed my line of questioning, as I continued cooking.
