Sabrina's Steel Rule

"Scarlett, you're a good woman. A good wife. I owe you everything."

I sat quietly in the chair and listened to Jack's drunken ramblings, but I kept my eyes on the table. He didn't deserve any eye contact.

"Yes, well, I'm not sure I know what to say about that," I said with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm sure you do," he said darkly. His face was flushed and his eyes were glassy from too much drink. He leaned back against the kitchen wall and slid down it until he was sitting on the floor. "You've been waiting for this day your whole life."

I didn't answer him. That wasn't true at all; in fact, it would be hard to find a woman who had prayed for something more than for her husband to stop drinking and being so mean. But this was our fate; we'd lived through the chaos of the big city, the riots and looting and destruction of the water supply by terrorists, but we had survived. And now he was right where I wanted him -- drunk and helpless on his own floor.

"Scarlett, are you listening to me?" he slurred back at me. "Do you hear what I'm saying?"

He began to get up off the ground and stagger towards me. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, so I just sat there looking down at my hands folded neatly in my lap as if they weren't shaking with fear at all. When he reached me, he grabbed my face roughly with both hands and pulled me close to him so that we could look eye-to-eye when he spoke again; even though it looked like his two eyes were trying to cross each other to focus on mine.

"Scarlett, it's time for your punishment," he said cheerfully as if he were announcing Christmas presents instead of threatening my life if I didn't obey him. "This is what we've got left in this world -- men are going to take whatever they want from women because they can."

"Jack, please ... don't start again ..." My voice shook as much as my hands did when I raised them to try and push him away from me: "You don't really mean any of this."

"I mean every word!" His angry words echoed across the empty room as his face began to turn redder than before: "Now get over here!"

I crawled over to where Jack stood against the wall facing away from me like a child being punished by an adult teacher trying not to break discipline by turning around before she told us we could look back at her.

"You've been a bad girl lately," Jack mumbled into his chest while reaching out with one hand behind his back and running it lightly down my body from my forehead all the way down past where my dress ended at my waistline. The touch sent chills up through my body that made me shudder slightly despite myself -- then again, maybe it was just the cold feeling running through my body that made me shiver so often these days anyway? It hadn't been so long since we had lost power and heat too many times for either of us to remember anymore.

The tips of his fingers traced along the hem of my skirt before grazing gently up between my legs where they brushed against the outside of my underwear with a softness that felt anything but soft after all those months together without a break from harsh words or rough touches or violent sex ... or none at all when things got really bad between us during those last few weeks before things went very wrong for everyone else in our old city but then got better for us just yesterday when Jack passed out drunk on our living room floor after one last shouting match between us that left me tired enough that I just lay down in bed beside him instead of sleeping next door in our daughter's room like I normally did during those awful fights between us ...

I felt him reach past me towards what must have been a belt lying on top of his discarded pants near where he must have taken them off earlier when he got home from work early because he was already drunk then too ... except that belt should have been draped over the doorknob leading into Scarlett's room instead of lying here with his pants ... unless someone had taken it off their doorknob after taking their clothes off ...