Stan

“This doesn’t have to be this way. I love your sister Carl and I’m going to make an honest woman of her.”

Carl wasn’t really hearing me. All I could see was anger in his eyes and I knew that there was no point in even trying to see if this could be straightened out. There was no point in talking to him when he was like this, so I was just going to have to do like I told Eve and let him get it out of his system. His eyes narrowed as I stepped off the porch and he moved in to hit me.

I let the first two connect with the desired target and I instantly felt it. Carl had always hit hard and I saw splashes of color behind my eye lids as the second one landed on my eye. I was trying to decide how much I was going to take of it when he moved in to hit me again.

That one I dodged, and he was putting so much into it that it rocketed him forward because I wasn’t there to stop the force as it connected with my jaw. Carl fell forward, and I tried to reason with him again. Eve was outside, hollering at the both of us. I didn’t want to hit Carl for a multitude of reasons, one of them being that I didn’t think that she would forgive me if I did. They were close.

“Stop Carl. That’s enough.”

“No, it’s not. That’s my little sister!”

He swung at me again and again I moved at the last second and sent him reeling. He fell to the ground and I could tell he was getting tired. He was putting too much into each punch and they would’ve hurt if they had connected. I was thankful that they hadn’t.

Carl came at me a couple of more times before finally he swayed and rushed at me. He was mad and now he was just getting sloppy. There was nothing that I could do now when he was acting like this. There was no talking to him.

Eve tried to get in the middle of it when it started to calm down a little bit.

“Please Carl. Can we just talk about it?”

He didn’t want to talk to her either and he had a hate-filled look in his eyes. I could tell that he was mad at her, as well as me. He started to tell her that she was wrong for being with me.

“Don’t take it out on her Carl. I’m the one you’re mad at.”

“You’re right, but she’s my sister so stay the hell out of it.”

There was no winning in this situation and I now wish that I would have hid. It was undignified sure, but I would have done it ten times over if it would have gotten me out of this sort of scene.

I went to the back bedroom and got dressed the rest of the way while the two siblings argued. I knew that it was a mess and that I was supposed to fix it, but how? Neither one of them were listening to reason.

When I came back out, Eve was crying, and I didn’t like the way that looked. I didn’t like to see her upset, so I told Carl to knock it off. “Leave her alone. I mean it.”

Carl looked like he wanted to hit me again or try anyways, but he didn’t move towards me. Betrayal was clear in his eyes and I didn’t know how to erase it because I didn’t like the look of it. I liked even less that he had a reason to look at me this way. We’d been friends for a long time and I didn’t want it to end like this. There had to be a way for him to see that this was supposed to happen.

In the end, Carl took off and Eve was left in the middle. She was upset, and I didn’t want to push it, but it was Eve that wanted to talk about it. She was convinced that this was all happening for a reason and I didn’t like the conclusion that she was coming to. It was not the sort of conclusion that I would make.

“I don’t know Stan, maybe this is all just a sign for us to keep away from each other. It shouldn’t be this hard. I must go find Carl. He doesn’t even know the city that well and I got to bring him back. I don’t think you should be here when he gets back. I’ll get him to come around, but it might take a while.”

I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t going anywhere. It had been a whirlwind since I went to Cambodia and met her in the jail. Ever since then it had been ups and downs. I wasn’t ready to give up now after everything was finally settled and we were back in the states together. Her brother would get over it. He couldn’t stay mad at me forever.

“Don’t let this ruin what we have going on here Eve.”

“What is it that we have going on here Stan? Is it really worth all of this?”

I didn’t hesitate with an answer. I thought it was more than worth it and I couldn’t believe that she didn’t feel the same way. She shouldn’t even be asking me that sort of question. To me, it was obvious.

“Of course, it’s worth it.”