Olivia was a slightly older first cousin to Sandra's mother, and the black sheep of the family. Sandra did not know why and had assumed it had something to do with her being a lesbian - maybe not.
Sandra was working on a family genealogy project and Olivia was the only person she still knew almost nothing about. They had never lived near each other nor visited together. The morning was still cool and Sandra was at her mother's house trying to convince her to reveal more about Olivia. She was not having much luck.
"Absolutely not," her mother screamed facing away as she stormed towards the door. Her leather shoe souls banged hard on the hardwood floor of the dinning room where Sandra's laptop sat on the table. Sandra had just asked her for the fifth time how to contact Olivia and for the fifth time received the same response without further explanation. Sandra slammed the laptop closed and chased after her, only catching up when she reached the microwave with the timer buzzing.
"Why not? What is so wrong with Olivia that keeps you from helping me get in touch with her? My god, she's only a lesbian...." The pitch of Sandra's voice increased a few octaves.
Betty cut Sandra off quickly. "Only? Queer is wicked." She was not overly religious and Sandra had never heard her express such opinions in the past, except when she talked about Olivia. She hated lying to her daughter, but she was terrified of telling her about her close relationship to Olivia and the shared need to be missing limbs. The later was something she feared telling Sandra more than anything else.
"Yeah, perhaps I don't buy into that bullshit. If she were married to a guy, would you still not want me to find her? Anyway, I suspect there is something else going on."
Sandra could see her head nodding the whole time but saying nothing. She stepped closer, and grasped her waist and shook slightly. "Why? What has she done that is so wrong? Rob a bank, kill a child? What?"
Betty shook her head and forced the hands from her waist. She roughly grabbed the muffin from the microwave and walked off in silence. Not willing to give up, Sandra followed her to the patio and sat across the glass top table from Betty who stared off into the distance across the small field into the forest of redwoods. A small blanket of fog rested atop the coastal ridge rising above the tallest trees. Just beyond was the vast Pacific Ocean. Sandra had lived there for most of her time at high school and college before moving into her own flat in town when she started graduate school.
"Sandra, this is something I wish to not talk about."
"It's important to me to find out about our family. This is the only hole in the family tree, I think. Are there others more hidden than Olivia?" Sandra watched her mother's head shake from side to side. "Damn!" she shouted and slammed her fist on the table. Betty stared back, her mouth slightly open, shocked at the anger. "Mom ... what if I was a lesbian? Would you disown me like you have Olivia?"
"No darling, anyway you're not." Betty took her first bite of the muffin. Her gaze locked on the young woman who watched her swallow and shift uncomfortably in the metal chair with a black cushion. "Um," she stammered. "Wait," she said and walked towards the house. Sandra fumed and twisted in the chair unable to relax and becoming even more agitated.
Betty returned with a journal. A page was loose and extended from the edge of the other pages. She pulled it out and handed it to Sandra keeping the journal in her hand. "Read this. I guess you're old enough." She managed a strained laugh. "Anyway, now that you're hell bent on finding out about her, you'd find out eventually. Once you get an idea in your head, you're like a mule." She took her unfinished muffin and walked away.
Sandra began to read the few words written in a curly cursive that looked like something by a young schoolgirl, all near the middle of the page.
'Rape sucks. Matt forced me. Something I will carry with me forever. A huge scar that will not go away. I hope I'm not pregnant. Glad my other secret is still mine. Someday I'll live that out, I know.'
The page lay under Sandra's hand on the table to keep it from blowing away in the gentle breeze. She stared at the words knowing there were more unanswered questions now than before. She turned the page over and read.
'I don't know why missing a limb is such a negative. She looks beautiful without her leg. She loves being that way. I would too.'
"Ah shit!" Sandra screamed banging her fist on the table. "Mom!" She stood and held the page containing so few words generating so many questions. Betty appeared at the open French door to the patio and leaned against the frame. Sandra scowled as she stared at her. "What is this all about ... is there more in the journal? Who was the person with one leg?"
"No, there isn't more. I found that page on the floor the last time I saw Olivia. That was seven years ago at a motel out on Route 24. She was storming out the door and I don't think she knew I had found it. Just a few words, just some scribbles. I have no clue what it means. The journal is mine. I just keep the page there."
"Matt was her older brother?"
"Yeah, that Matt. It was so many years ago. She was nineteen, he twenty-seven. I get the idea he thought he could break her of being 'that way'." Her fingers made quote marks in the air. "I suspect others put him up to it."
"Not a chance that would change her."
"I know. He was foolish." Betty shifted the weight from one foot to the other and crossed her arms while considering just telling Sandra the whole story.
"What about the woman?"
"Got me, maybe it's some fetish. I never heard her talk about it." Her voice strained as she lied.
"So, will you help me find Olivia?"
"Let me think about it."
"What's to think about?" Sandra's hands were jammed against her hips, her feet spread. Her eyes locked on Betty. "What?" Sandra said loudly.
Betty pulled a scrap of paper from her jeans and held it out to Sandra. "You sort this out by yourself. I don't want to know." Her heart pounded knowing this could be her answer to long restrained needs of her own.
Sandra's feet moved as if encased in lead. At last, she was close enough to take the paper from her mother's hand. Almost unwilling to look, she finally glanced at it. Scrawled across it was a phone number, nothing else, not even a name.