2 Chapter 2: The Reunion-Part 2
They both looked at each other for a long pause till her sister cut this awkward silence. "I invited my sister to stay for a while if you don't mind."
"Oh no, of course not…” he said while still looking at his sister-in-law and added, “Happy to have you here! And happy to see you again." He smiled at the girl who once was everything for him. After all these years, still, she could take his breath away.
"Thanks." She said.
Seeing him again in his house with his wife, her sister, was not easy to do… knowing that they were not happy and having issues, making it even harder.
She was not sure whether to be happy, that after what both of them did to her and how much she suffered because of them, or should she feel sorry for them.
She turned to face her sister, who immediately changed her flat face to form a fake smile, and then her sister looked back to see her husband who still had the soft look that she missed for a long time, or maybe a look that she never saw.
"Sir, the supper is ready." The maid's voice saved all of them from the weird silence that covered the place.
"Thanks; will you please ensure having my mom with us as well," then he looked back at his sister-in-law and said, "she will be delighted to meet you again."
She pulled her hair behind her ear, looking at her sister, and tried to read the weird look that was on her sister’s face.
"Excuse me; I will join you in a minute." He said so, keeping his wide radiant smile that did not leave his face since he saw his sister-in-law, as if it were impossible to act differently. Then he left the garden.
Her sister looked at him to ensure that he had already left and placed her hand over hers. "See, I told you… now the maid will pretend to talk to someone as well." She whispered.
At the supper table, all were there, herself, her sister, and her brother-in-law. She noticed an empty plate was placed next to her. She assumed this was for the dead mom.
The maid, placing final touches, poured water in the glass next to the empty plate, took out a medicine tablet, and placed it next to the empty plate. The maid looked at her with twinkling eyes.
Her sister asked the maid to start serving the soup.
"We need to wait for my mom,"...he said firmly.
The maid went inside, ignoring her sister’s order.
"Please, darling, we have a guest here today; will you please act normal?"
He looked back at his wife and said in a deep tone, "it is you who needs to stop acting crazy."
They started arguing, and they exchanged insults with each other… she was looking at them, moving her puzzled eyes between them. Till she saw the maid entering the room.
“Oh yes. She is alive.” These words came out of her lips spontaneously.
Her sentence cut into the couple’s argument, and her sister’s face got pale, and her lips lost color.
“What did you say, sister?” her sister asked and looked sharply at her eyes.
She looked at her sister from the corner of her eyes; her look had a mixture of disappointment, sadness, and fear at the same time.
“It is nice to see you and in good health.” She said while greeting the old lady.
During supper, the husband and she were the only ones who talked and ate. Her sister kept gazing at her untouched plate with a pale yellowish face and unreadable eyes. By a glance at her sister, you would know she was in a different world, not a pleasant one indeed.
After supper, she felt a need to walk her sister to the bedroom suite, as it seemed that her sister lost interest in everything. It seemed that her sister had lost her last battle of surviving. They walked in silence and did not exchange a word.
In her guest room, she was preparing herself to go to bed when her brother-in-law knocked on the door. “May I?” He asked, preserving his smile.
She hesitated a bit before opening the door. “You realize it is late.” She said.
“Well, we wanted to discuss the situation with you. That is why we asked you to visit us, remember?” his brother-in-law said.
“We…” She shook her head, trying to understand what he meant ... then she saw her sister standing next to him, looking dejected.
“Ah. Come in,” she said.
The guest room she was in had a hall with a seating area, a TV, and a working area. This guest room was triple the size of her tiny flat downtown.
“Would you like to have tea?” he asked so with a smile on his face, looking at both of sisters from the corner of his eyes. Without waiting for an answer, he entered the kitchenette and started preparing tea for them.
“Well,” he said, handing the teacup to her with a dazzling smile. “As you have noticed, your sister requires medical care, unfortunately. I tried to convince her several times to see a psychiatrist before her situation gets worse. She never listened to me till we have reached this point.” He said these words and handed the other cup of tea to his wife who did not take it. So, he had to place it on the small table in front of his wife, looking at her weirdly. A look she could not figure out what it meant, but definitely not out of pity.
“I am afraid that we will have to admit her to the center,” he said, looking back at his sister-in-law.
“The center?” She asked.
“The mental medical center for crazy people,” her sister answered hopelessly.
“Hey, darling, do not say so; this is for your own good… For ours. Your mental condition is serious, and I am afraid you will harm yourself. It is for your good.” He said, and placed his hand over his wife’s shoulder to comfort her. He turned to look back at his sister-in-law and went on, “Well, you know, my beloved wife never believed me, my mom, or the maid. So, I suggested having you here and making you the judge.”
She could not understand what he meant by his last sentence. She looked at her sister and asked, “Is it your husband who asked you to send me the letter? Why did you lie to me?” She spoke in a high pitch.
“That is what I remember happened, but” then her sister’s voice became harder to be heard as she was preventing her tears from coming out, “but I guess it is my imagination.” Her sister looked at her with wet eyes and forced a smile while wiping off her unpreventable tears.
“Wait, a second; why did you come here? I thought you knew; you were aware,” he asked her, but placed his unblinking eyes on his wife.
“No, she told me…”
Her sister jumped from her chair and reached out to her. Her whole body was shaking, and she said. “Please, sister, stop it, I beg you.” She said so, having a peek at her husband.
“What did you tell her?” His voice was more screaming than talking, yet his face remained calm over seeing his scared wife.
“I am sorry, darling,” her sister spoke and cried at the same time, “I don’t know what is going on with me.” Her sister peeked at her this time.
She witnessed something she did not like on her brother-in-law’s face, who still looked weirdly calm, and he said, “Your sister keeps imagining things and making up stories, telling them to everyone around us.”
“I never did.” Her sister said, hopelessly throwing herself back into her chair.
Hearing his wife disagreeing made him lose his temper and started shouting, “That is enough; this is more than anyone could handle… it is bad enough to live with a crazy woman, and…”
“I don’t think argument solves the situation here. Plus, she is not fine. She does not mean what she says or how she acts… that is not a way to talk to a sick person.” She said, looking uneasily at her brother-in-law.
“I suffered a lot last year; I was afraid to go to work and leave her. As every day I would come to witness, a disaster happened or about to. If she had listened to me from the beginning, we would not have reached this point,” he replied.
“Did she harm herself or the girls before?” she asked his brother-in-law, looking directly at his eyes.
“What girls?” He asked suspiciously, trying to figure out what he had just heard. Then, he looked with a worried look at his wife.
