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never heard this version of the joke
before.
    “ Why?” Edna
asked pulling into Jane’s drive way.
    “ Because KFC
was giving life insurance.” He answered with a beaming smile. Maria
and Edna laughed.
    “ I have another
one.” Michael bounced up and down on Maria’s lap.
    “ Go for it.”
Maria whispered her eyes glued on her son’s beaming face. She
wished she was like him, capable of blocking out all the bad stuff
moments after it happened. But was he blocking it out or bottling
it up?
    “ How many
doctors do you need to change a light bulb?”
    “ Two.” Edna
answered him.
    “ None. It
depends on whether or not it has health insurance!” they all
laughed. Maria and Edna hadn’t heard that one before
either.
    “ Do you get
these jokes from school or Sunday school?” Maria asked him still
laughing. She tried to remove his hand from her neck, but he held
on to her tight. She looked at him worried, was he pretending to be
fine just for her benefit?
    The laughter died when
Jane stepped out of her house, with her baby in her arms. She’d
heard the car pull up in her drive way.
    The reality of why they
were here in the first place weighed heavily on them. Maria got
teary again, but she held back crying until Michael was out of the
car. Edna got out behind him. She took Jane’s baby and walked into
the house with Michael in tow.
    Jane ran to the car and
helped Maria out. She held her in a bear hug as she cried her heart
out again. Maria felt the familiar itch that always came when she
was touched, but she didn’t pull away, she wanted to be held, to be
comforted and protected from her life.
    It was an hour before
Maria felt cried out. She sank to the ground and sat down, her back
against her Vitz, her head in her hands. Jane sunk next to her, and
began looking her over for any sort of marks.
    “ What did he do
to you?” she asked bitterly.
    “ Michael woke
me up crying... mama was barricading the door...,” she stopped. A
fresh trickle of tears ran down her cheeks. The thought of Ricky
succeeding on catching up with them made her shiver with fear, “I
can’t... I can’t take this anymore Jane, I just can’t.”
    Jane stood up and pulled
Maria up, “You won’t have to. You are all leaving tonight.” she led
Maria into the house and bolted her door shut.
    Maria stood anxiously at
the window keeping a look out for Ricky. She knew he had already
been to JJ’s and he was now out in the town searching for her. She
felt a little comfort that he wouldn’t dare go to Jane’s house. He
was too much of a coward to face Tom. Jane had asked him to stay
home that day just in case Ricky’s alcoholic ego convinced him to
stop by. Maria felt embarrassed about it, but Tom was too willing
to do it. He had waited a long time to give Ricky a taste of his
own medicine and he wasn’t going to miss his chance in delivering
it.
    Maria picked up Jane and
Tom’s wedding photo from the table and stared at it with longing.
They looked happy and so much in love with each other, like they
were halves of each other that needed to be together to live a full
content life. She envied them, not in a way that would birth
resentment, but in an empty wishful way.
    How she wished she had
something like that, someone to love her unconditionally with
respect and trust. Someone, whose hands would give her pleasure and
comfort and not unimaginable pain. Someone who would make love to
her with passion and not abuse her with sadistic enthusiasm like
Ricky did. How she wished she felt the same excitement Jane did
when she went home everyday to her husband and not the dread and
fear she felt when she went home to Ricky.
    How she wished she was
someone else.
    “ Maria lets
go.” Jane walked to the door and held it ajar. Maria looked at her,
tangling her fingers, too scared to put a foot out and have Ricky
attack her. “Don’t worry, Tom is keeping him busy in town.” a grin
crept over her face.
    Maria smiled back,
understanding what