Anatomy of a murder part 1.

They aren’t going to stop crying. The kitchen is cluttered with the dishes of a day frozen. Each of the sister’s breath is on hold, choked in their tight throats horse from so much wailing and shouting. Eyes are swollen from too many tears and an unbearable truth. It’s Prin’s cries that upset me the most. The three sisters have been weeping all day. My girlfriend D’s cries have settled to a low moan. Val sniffles with her head down nodding no no no. But it is Prin’s cry that won’t subside nor her fierce wild stare she is throwing at her husband. "What are we going to do?" She is pleading to the room, the walls, the space that seems to have been fragmented between us all leaving a jagged reality separating us, banished to our own islands of panic and shame. What do we do? For the last few hours since we heard the news their mother was severely injured but still alive and going to make it this question has been asked , pleaded, screamed. Prin is furious but can’t decide at who, so she is tearing at herself. "How can she go back to that son of a bitch? He almost killed her!" I can see in her eyes she hates her mother for being with Tony let alone letting him beat her to a pulp and then taking him back? Too much. Tony had lost it. He was a mean man who succeeded in separating Berta from her daughters except for the youngest who lived with them. Once he had the two alone he began to terrorize the child and brutalize the mother. He had no fear of any of us. This day started with a call from the hospital informing Prin that her mother was in stable condition but in tremendous pain. Apparently she had been mugged. Prin knew it was Tony and in a rage called her sisters. We gathered in the small apartment Prin and her husband Ern shared with Val. D was flush with anger and called Tony demanding to know what happened. It was then that the panic struck. Young, good people are ill equipped to deal with evil. To watch innocence leave the face of my love was one of the most unbearable visions of my life. She dropped the phone and fell back into a chair. Val picked up the phone and screamed " what the fuck do you have to say for your self?". She too blinked unbelieving and hung up. "He says he’s going to rape me and kill me". D. nods and says "me too. He says he’s going to kill us all." Ern calls the police who are annoyed and belligerent saying unless you have the threats on tape don’t call back and without the mother pressing charges there is no crime. It’s been hours and even Prin is beginning to crack saying over and over " what can we do." I can’t stand it. I walk outside into the late afternoon and the clarity of being outdoors offers a cool solution. I’m going to kill him. Not a tense dramatic epiphany rather a calm necessary choice. I don’t feel dreamy or nervous and can’t think of any reason for going back into the house with nothing to offer my family for consoling. Ern sees me get into my truck and runs out "Hey man where you going?" I smile wanly at him and he says "Well then I’m going too". I ask him "can you think of any other way?" "Nope". "Ern, I don’t care if I get caught. 7 years is worth killing this fuck. You have a lot to lose." "Well then, I guess we aren’t getting caught." I check my pistol and start up the truck for the cross town drive.