Wife Wanted Sick Sister Home, I Suggested a Bridge

1: 1

After Naomi Swanson got sick, my wife wanted her to move in with us, and she wanted me to help cover the medical bills.

I shook my head. No.

I'm begging you. She's the only sister I have. I can't just stand by and watch her die.

She had a tight grip on my hand, eyes red-rimmed, like she'd just been crying.

But I didn't think I'd done anything wrong.

"Before we got married, we agreed. We split everything down the middle."

"She's your sister. I'm not splitting her medical bills. And besides, the apartment's in both our names."

"If you want her to stay here, fine. Rent's a hundred a day, and I'll take my half. Fifty."

I didn't bother lowering my voice.

Naomi dropped her eyes, her voice trembling.

"Sis, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I should just go."

I lit a cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke.

"People need to know their limits. You can't just expect everyone else to bail you out."

"If you really can't afford it, there's an overpass near the hospital. Warm in winter, cool in summer. People can live there just fine."

Naomi forced a smile and turned to leave.

The next second, my wife caught her by the hand.

"Let me grab a few things. I'm going with you..."

I paused, stubbed out the cigarette, and followed them into the bedroom.

Watching her actually drag out a suitcase, I couldn't help frowning.

"What are you doing? Was anything I said wrong?"

"Every stray cat and dog comes to me for money. My money doesn't fall out of the sky."

"Today I help your sister, tomorrow it's some other relative. I make what I make in a month. How am I supposed to bail out that many people?"

Freda Swanson's hands went still, something shifting behind her eyes.

"I have never once asked you to help anyone. This is the only time."

"When we got married, she ran herself ragged for us. Did she ever ask you for a single cent?"

"Leon Cobb, in your eyes, is my sister only fit to sleep under an overpass?"

I shook my head, unmoved.

"One thing has nothing to do with the other. You're her sister. That's just what she was supposed to do."

"And afterward I gave her a ninety-nine-dollar gift envelope, didn't I? What more do you want?"

"Freda, don't change the subject. Bringing this up now, are you trying to dredge up old scores?"

Freda looked at me, something in her eyes I couldn't read.

She said nothing more, just went on packing her clothes.

I reached out and pressed a hand down on the suitcase, irritation creeping in.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Over someone who's about to die?"

"We met in college, and we made it all the way to marriage. You know how hard that was."

"Life's finally getting good. I'm thinking about our future. When did you get so selfish?"

Freda and I had been college classmates. She came from a single-parent home, and after graduation,

her mother and sister were like two locusts, latching onto her and draining her dry.

I'd told her more than once not to get so involved, and every time it ended in a cold war.

She lifted her head, eyes full of disappointment.

"Selfish. Leon Cobb, if you think I'm a selfish woman, then let's divorce."

Furious, I slapped the suitcase.

"Fine. If you want to go, go. I'm not one of those good husbands online. I'm not going to bow and beg you for anything."

"And don't blame me for being blunt. Your sister's kind of illness, treating it is just throwing money away."

"So give it up. Being poor is the original sin. Forget whether it can even be cured. Can you come up with that kind of money?"

The apartment had been the wedding home my parents bought, and her name was on the deed.

At the engagement, I'd proposed that after marriage we'd each keep our own paychecks and split every expense down the middle. She agreed.

After that, in this household, down to a single bowl, I settled every account with her, clean and clear.

Her salary wasn't high, and after the household expenses, there wasn't much left.

But I knew that whatever she managed to save, she funneled every last cent of it back to her mother's side.

Otherwise she wouldn't be eyeing my money.

Freda folded the last piece of clothing and set it in the suitcase.

The look she gave me was ice cold.

"You're right. I took too much for granted. Not everyone can feel what someone else feels."

"Leon Cobb, I've never asked you to do anything. So when it comes to my sister, you have no right to tell me what to do."

She pulled the suitcase and walked straight past me.

I watched her back and stood where I was, not calling her back.

"Sis, don't do anything rash. Your husband's right. My kind of illness can't be cured."

"I've already made my peace with it..."

Naomi grabbed the suitcase away from her, a bitter smile on her face.

"Sis..."

"You put in so much to have a home of your own. I can't drag you back down into my mess."

Then Naomi turned an apologetic look toward me.

"Leon, please don't be angry. My sister's just like that."

"I'm leaving now. Don't worry, I won't come bother you two again. Please don't fight with my sister."

I looked at that gaunt, wasted face of hers, and something sat heavy in my chest.

The words I'd meant to say caught in my throat.

2: 2

"Naomi, don't beg him."

"Come on, I'll take you for a good meal first, then we'll go find a place to stay."

Freda snatched the suitcase back.

Ignoring her sister's protests, she pulled her toward the door.

"Freda, if you walk out that door, don't bother coming back."

"Come back now and I'll pretend none of this ever happened. Are you sure you want to keep this up?"

I finally couldn't hold it in, and my voice dropped into a warning.

Her steps didn't slow.

The door slammed hard behind her. That was her answer.

...

The next evening, on my way home from work.

My phone rang. It was Naomi.

"Leon, are you off work yet? Could you come pick my sister up now and take her home?"

"I've already found a place, right near the hospital, so I can go in for treatment on my own. My sister doesn't need to stay with me."

Listening to that eager, ingratiating tone, a knowing look crossed my face.

Too proud to say it herself, so she sent her sister to do the talking.

"Heh. So your sister's finally realized she was wrong."

"Fine. Send me the address. I just got off work, I'll drive over now. Have her get her bags ready so I'm not sitting there waiting half the day."

An hour later, after circling the block a few times, I found the place Naomi was renting.

The room was tiny, barely enough for a bed and a table to eat at.

The place was scrubbed clean, but the air still carried a stale, moldy smell that wouldn't lift.

"Leon, you're here. Come sit."

Naomi saw me and pushed herself up from the bed, her face uneasy and awkward.

Freda sat beside her, sorting out her medicine.

I cleared my throat and covered my nose in distaste.

I looked at the grimy stool and didn't move a step.

"Naomi, how did you end up in a place like this? The smell is unbearable. How is anyone supposed to live here?"

"I'll skip the seat. Freda, I'll wait in the car. Hurry up and come out."

I turned and walked out of the room. It was too suffocating in there, almost sickening.

By the time Freda came out, several cigarette butts had piled up at my feet.

I looked at her empty hands, confused.

"What took you so long? Don't you know the traffic's terrible this time of day? And where are your bags?"

Freda didn't answer. She just got into the passenger seat.

I let out a scoff and dropped it. I was long used to her acting like this.

After every fight she was the same, saying nothing.

Stuck in traffic for an hour, we finally got home.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and held out my hand out of habit.

"With the traffic, we'll call it twenty."

The car was mine, so gas and tolls got split too.

I was only enforcing the rules, strictly.

Freda said nothing this time. She tapped her phone and sent the money over.

"Payment received: forty dollars."

I opened the transfer screen.

I paused when I saw the note she'd written: gas fare.

Back inside, I pressed her on what she meant by that.

Freda didn't even lift her head.

"Gas fare. Whatever it comes to, that's what it is. From now on, I won't owe you anything."

I opened my mouth to say that wasn't what I'd meant.

But by the time the words came out, they'd changed.

"So this is you admitting you were wrong? Fine, I forgive you this time."

"I'm in a good mood today. Let's go out for the hot pot you love. Same rules as always, we split it."

I went back to the room and changed my clothes.

When I was ready to head out, Freda was still sitting on the couch, not moving.

On the coffee table sat a divorce agreement.

3: 3

My face changed.

"I drove all the way out to bring you back, and this is how you repay me? You still want to make trouble?"

"Don't threaten me with divorce. This is about money, isn't it."

"That's money I earned with my own sweat. I'm not helping your sister, so give it up."

A cold smile hung at the corner of her mouth, her eyes full of contempt.

"I only came back so Naomi wouldn't have to watch us fight."

"Leon, let's get divorced. Let's stop making each other miserable."

I didn't understand it. She went out for one trip, and she came back demanding a divorce.

I held down the anger churning in me, my voice going harder.

"Did Naomi say something to you? Hah. Now I get it."

"She hates me. She hates that I won't let her live here, that I won't give her money, right?"

"Freda, don't fool yourself into thinking she's some good person. She's jealous that you have such a good life, so she's deliberately turning you against me."

"I'm calling her right now. I want to see where she gets the nerve, breaking up her own sister's marriage."

I pulled out my phone to call Naomi.

But Freda snatched it out of my hand and threw it onto the couch.

"Enough. How much longer do you want to drag this out?"

Her eyes were red, and she was fighting to keep her emotions in check.

"Leon, I don't understand why you have such a problem with Naomi. If she hadn't called you today behind my back, I never would have wanted to see you at all."

"Did Naomi choose to get sick? You don't want to help. I can't say whether that's right or wrong."

"But from now on, I don't want to hear a single disrespectful word about her come out of your mouth."

A bitter ache rose in my chest. Even now, her heart was still on Naomi's side.

I was about to argue when her phone rang.

Freda listened for a few seconds, and the color drained from her face. She could barely stay on her feet.

I asked what was wrong. She didn't answer.

She just turned and stumbled toward the door.

"Freda, what are you doing? You come back when you feel like it, you leave when you feel like it?"

"We're not settling this today, and you're not going anywhere."

I rushed over and blocked her path.

"Get out of my way."

Freda shoved me aside, red-eyed, and pushed open the door and ran out without looking back.

The shove sent me staggering backward.

By the time I got up and chased after her, she was already gone from the stairwell.

"Freda, go. If you leave, don't come back."

"Go spend the rest of your life looking after that sick sister of yours."

I slammed the door hard, and it landed with a heavy, dull thud.

I sat down on the couch and lit a cigarette.

The nicotine settled me, and slowly my mind quieted.

My eyes fell on that divorce agreement.

I couldn't help the sneer that pulled at my mouth.

"Freda, so now you've learned to test me this way too?"

"This is about money, isn't it. Well, I'm not giving you what you want."

....

Ash dropped onto the agreement and burned a little scar into the paper.

Ten days passed, and the pinned avatar never once lit up.

Freda hadn't contacted me in ten days.

More than once I almost wanted to ask her what she was actually trying to do, but I held it back.

Every day, coming home from work, all I thought about was which takeout place to order from tonight.

I pushed open the door and saw a figure sitting on the couch.

4: 4

I paused, a small lift of excitement in my chest, but as I got closer I saw it was my mother.

"Mom, you didn't even call to say you were coming?"

I tugged my tie loose in disappointment and slouched against the couch.

She didn't answer.

She picked up the agreement off the table and held it up in front of my face.

"You've still got the nerve to talk. If I hadn't shown up, I'd never have known you and Freda were in this big a mess."

"Talk. What is going on, and what is this divorce paper about?"

"And where's Freda? Don't tell me she hasn't been home all these days."

Her booming voice set my eardrums ringing.

I looked at her, speechless.

"Mom, don't make a scene. Freda and I are just having a spat. It's not real."

"It's all Naomi's fault. Every time her name comes up, nothing good follows."

Confusion crossed my mother's face.

"Naomi, Freda's sister? She came too?"

"What happened, exactly? Tell me word for word, and don't try to fudge it."

I couldn't win against my mother, so I ran through it in rough outline.

"That's the whole thing. It's all Naomi's fault. Otherwise why would Freda and I be fighting? The woman's a walking jinx. Why won't she just drop dead?"

The words were barely out when my mother slapped me.

"Mom, are you insane? What was that for?"

I stared at her in disbelief.

My mother looked at me the way you'd look at something you'd given up on.

"That's for you, and I still want to kill you."

"How could you do something so ungrateful? That's Freda's own sister. However much you dislike her, you don't wish death on a person. How did I ever raise a son like you?"

"I know Naomi's health is bad. Freda's spent plenty on her sister these past few years."

"And if she came to your door asking for help, that means she'd truly run out of options. How much money do you have? Transfer every cent of it to Freda."

I stared blankly at my mother.

"Every cent? You've got to be joking, Mom. It took me two years to save seventy thousand and change, and you want me to hand it all over? That's asking for my life."

The look in her eyes made my skin crawl.

"How about I keep twenty thousand? I was going to buy a drone."

One more slap knocked the last of my luck out of me.

"Keep, keep, keep, keep what? Money gone, you can earn more. Wife gone, we'll see how you cry then."

"You don't give it, I sell the house. Her name's on the deed anyway."

"Now go get your phone. Quit dragging your feet."

Without another word my mother snatched my phone and transferred the whole amount to Freda.

Then she called Freda right in front of me.

I sighed. Everything I'd scraped together, gone.

The call connected.

"Freda, it's Mom. I know about you and that rotten boy."

"Don't be upset. I've already given him a good talking-to."

"Which hospital is your sister in? I'll drag this idiot over to apologize right now."

Hearing that she'd taken my money and still wanted me to apologize, I refused on the spot and started needling from the side.

"Freda, I'm warning you, don't push your luck. The money's transferred. Don't ever say again that I didn't help your sister."

There was a pause on the other end, then Freda's calm voice.

"No need. I'll refund the money in a bit. Have you signed the agreement? Let's find a time and go finalize the divorce."

I hadn't expected her to still dare bring up the divorce.

"Freda, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Seventy thousand's not enough? You want me to sell the house too?"

"Naomi's with you, isn't she? Put her on. I'd like to hear exactly what she's scheming."

My mother ground her teeth in fury and slapped the phone to mute.

"Don't listen to him. It's my fault, I didn't raise him right."

"I had him transfer the money to you. Take it for now. If it's not enough, tell Mom."

On the other end, Freda's voice broke a little.

"Ma'am, there's no need."

"Naomi... she's already gone..."