Humble Monster

For the next few moments she hobbles about...bent from the pain of moving so much...her middle feels as though it is about to split.She holds her stomach and hunches as this feels better and doesn't put such a strain on the stitches or her twisted spine.It is only a matter of time before she begins to speak again while the eggs and sausage are bubbling.

"I used to have such beautiful skin..white as porcelain...But that was quite a long time ago..Long before these scars and bruises.I would suppose that I would scare the horrors out the neighborhood with such if I were allowed to go outside...I may even scare myself if you hadn't removed all the mirrors from our house.Thank God,I have you to take care of me like this.I don't have an inch of the cleverness you possess."

She smiles slyly at her imagination"I can simply imagine it...All the neighbors running to snatch their sweet children off of their pretty lawns as I pass...and when the police are finally called in to investigate a monster in the area,they would only find harmless me.

She begins to laugh.

STOP LAUGHING!!!

And she stops abruptly.Lowering her head with shame.

"Oh ,darling,"she pleas apathetically",Why.?...Why must you be so stern?Why must you hate so many things?

No laughing.No Crying.No singing,or dancing or talking.So many rules for me to follow each day.Rules,rules and more rules.I grow tired at the thought of them.Can you imagine the dizziness in my mind of trying to keep track of so many?

He ignores her still.

She places his breakfast in front of him cautiously and backs away..Maybe the surgery didn't help.Maybe it was all just a bitter disappiontment and she will have to do it again.Maybe he is angry and planning a new method..that explains his silence.Important men need silence to concentrate.Let him eat...Let him eat in peace.."she reminds herself.

She is finished watching him for the moment and hunching over ,shuffles on a gimpy foot to sit opposite of him.

Inside her mouth she intinctively runs her tonque across missing and cracked teeth.There is a spot that bothers her and causes her to flinch in pain.But not as much pain as the incision which is now oozing a wetness upon her red dress.

He lets go of a belch in the quiet setting and causes her to jump."My..my..my...that smells awful dear.I guess the sausages were a little too much..At least they aren't on the floor or on me.I have taken so much trouble to make sure all of your meals are prepared according to your strict instructions.I am so glad to have someone like you to teach me.I don't know where I would be or what it would be like without you to show me right from wrong.

She turns her crooked head to the doorway and listens intently.

"Do you hear them!!??The children are coming up the street and I can only imagine how beautiful they are.I listen to them speaking sometime and try to imagine what wonderful lives they must have.What energy and spryness they possess.

I imagine,"she is gazing and reflective,"their tiny faces and hands so soft and pretty and their hair long and shiny.The sunshine sparkling in their eyes.I am so curious to see them...but would never dare to break the rule.I know you are so firm about that.And you always have a good reason.

Timidly she looks to his face.He is staring at her now with those cold eyes.

"Could...Could you..Could you maybe tell me what color my hair is now...Not that it matters..I can feel it growing out in places."

He is watching her with that calmness that incites her to nervousness.She begins to stammer and tries deperaely to smile to hide it."Not that it is important.I'm just surprised how quick the blisters healed on my head.Her face becomes serious "So silly"she scolds herself",so silly to be thinking about hair of all things."

She her head to concentrate on pushing the pain in her gut away.Her head is beginning to itch and her back is jarring with stiffness.Her hunger for food is making her sick.But a good woman doesn't complain and make alot of noise.A good woman feeds her man first and eats what he doesn't want anymore.

A sharp knock on the front door snaps her from the trance.She looks about the room in panic and Falls from the chair to land at his feet."Do you hear someone at the door?!!!"Her voice is shaky and garbled.It is hard to speak quickly with few teeth in your mouth.Her tongue kept slipping to find the right sounds in her mania."You know the rules!!I must never answer the door..I can't break the rules."Oh...Please will you quit ignoring me and help..!!"

She clings to his pants leg and whines"Why are you so stubborn?

Her eyes are beginning to water.Some of the stitches have popped in the spastic fall and she is struggling to regain a standing position.This is hard since she has such little balance due to a ruptured inner ear.

Another knock comes louder than the first.She brings her hands across her ears to block the reality of it.

"Dr.