I CAME HOME FROM DEPL:OYMENT WITHOUT WARNING AND FROZE — MY WIFE’S HEAD WAS SHAVED, HER FACE BRUISED
I CAME HOME FROM DEPLOYMENT WITHOUT WARNING AND FROZE — MY WIFE’S HEAD WAS SHAVED, HER FACE BRUISED, AND MY MOTHER WAS SCREAMING TO THROW HER OUT OVER A $100,000 DEBT.
I DIDN’T ARGUE. I CHECKED THE PROMISSORY NOTES. AND WHAT MY OWN FAMILY HAD DONE LEFT ME SPEECHLESS.
PART 1
I came back from leave without telling anyone and froze when I saw my wife with her head shaved and her face covered in bruises. My mother shouted, “Throw her out! She owes more than $100,000 and has brought shame on us!”
My name is Alexander, I’m thirty-six, a captain in the Army, home early on three days’ leave to surprise my wife, Clara. In my backpack was a small hair clip I’d bought her. I never imagined she’d no longer have hair to put it in.
My mother’s house looked like it had been through a fight. But when I saw Clara — against the wall, bruised, her waist-length hair brutally shaved off — nothing else mattered.
“Collectors came!” my mother Beatrice shouted. “Your sister says Clara owes over $100,000.”
My sister Penelope stood behind her, immaculate — fresh manicure, a gold bracelet I’d never seen.
