The Besotted

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You can hear a pin drop with the tense silence in this car. Even worse, you can hear every shift in the octave of Rea's voice--

Every crack, every breath, every effort to not let tears roll down her face.

They slept over at my house this weekend and then insisted on driving me to my first day of work because I apparently needed a pep talk...

That pep talk was interrupted by a phone call from Rea's little sister, and since this is Rea's car and she's driving... well, we are witnesses to a very painful phone call.

You can hear the teenage girl try to stop her sobs on the other end of the line as she begs her older sister to come home, and we know how it must be breaking Rea's heart.

"You promised--" A soft, forlorn voice sings through the speakers.

Rea promised to go back for her when she got settled here... that was five years ago.

But today they're talking about her upcoming birthday bash, she's turning the same age as Rea was when she left home.

Rea swallows heavily, and I can see her long lashes fluttering away the tears pooling in her eyes, "I know, and I will do my best."

Silence for a few seconds..

"You always say that..."

My heart clenches for them.

Rea throws her head back and bites her lower lip hard, "I don't mean for things to be like this Kemo--"

"Bo mama said it's okay, I talked to them, Sis Rea," Her voice trembles a bit, "Can't you just make it for one night?"

The most I know about Rea is that she wanted to go to college, and her family wanted her to get married straight out of high school, and she defied them. She has bigger balls than all of us, that's for sure.

Now she works three jobs, one of which she recently lost to send her little sister money back home.

She says she doesn't want her little sister to be entirely dependent on her parents because they will manipulate and use her to further their own agenda-- they're not exactly royalty, rather royalty adjecent, always just a hair breadth away so there's always an agenda to tip the scales to give them power.

She also doesn't want her little sister to fall into the usual township girls' trap of getting involved with older men who promise to take care of them financially-- there's an irony in there somewhere.

But money clearly doesn't fill the void she left in her younger sister's life.

"Kemo, listen, I will try--" Rea carries on.

"It's okay," Her little sister cuts her off abruptly, then a little sniffle, "I have to go, dad's calling. Love you."

She hangs up before Rea can say anything back, we're lucky to be at the robot because clearly she needs a moment before she can move.

Her big hazel eyes drip with tears as her face screws up in a heartbreaking expression I have ever seen on her face--

She lives for that little girl. We all know all that. She doesn't talk about her much these days, but when she got here, when I first got to know her, she was all she talked about. How smart and funny, and beautiful she is, how she deserves much better than what her parents have in store for her and how she'd do everything to make sure that doesn't happen.