Instead, Sonika sank down until she crouched on her heels. She held the position easily, looking far more comfortable than Allison felt perched on her tiny seat.
In two years of volunteering, Allison had learned the unspoken rules for dealing with victims of domestic violence. You took your time. You nodded when they said that he wasn’t so bad, that it was complicated. You told them to write down the hotline number next to a fake name, so that no one would suspect. You didn’t call a marriage an “abusive relationship” until they were ready. You didn’t scare women by trying to force them to go into the shelter. And you never berated them for not leaving—or for going back.
“What brings you here?” Allison asked.
Sonika’s fingers hovered over the top button on her high-necked blouse, then cupped her knees. “Very private.”
Allison nodded. For five minutes, they sat in silence. Finally, Sonika brought her fingers up to her blouse again. She unbuttoned the top button and the next. Holding the edges of her blouse, she pulled them open and turned her head away.
Small black bruises were lined up on each side of her neck. Someone had tried to strangle her.
“I’m sorry,” Allison said. “You can button your blouse back up.”
Sonika did, her eyes still not meeting Allison’s.
“Your husband?”
Sonika didn’t answer, just pushed up her sleeve. More bruises braceleted her wrist. These were older, a greenish-yellow.
“These my husband.”
“Then who tried to . . .” Allison veered away from the word strangle—this woman was like a frightened deer. “Who hurt your neck?”
“My father.”
“Your father?” Her voice betrayed her surprise. Give me guidance, Lord.
“I ask if I could live at home again. He say I bring shame on our family. He say better for me to be dead than disgrace.”
“Where does your husband think you are right now?”
“Grocery store.”
“I can help you. We can make it so that your father and your husband have to stay away from you. I am a lawyer. I can make the police and the courts protect you.”
Sonika snorted and shook her head as if Allison had just said something wryly funny. “The police! They want money. My father, my husband, they have money. Not me.”
Allison had run into this problem before with immigrants from countries where justice was available to the highest bidder.
“Not here, Sonika. I can make it so that your husband and father won’t be able to come near you without being put in jail. We can help you get housing, food stamps, eventually a job. We can help you get a new life, Sonika. One where nobody hurts you.”
“You don’t understand. My father was in army. He knows how to kill people. He knows how to make them disappear.” Sonika flicked her slender hand to show how fast it could happen.
“But you’re his daughter.”
“He has five daughters. I am disobeying.”
“But—,” Allison started, when her phone buzzed on her waist.
She looked down at the display. Nicole. Nicole knew where Allison was, knew not to call unless it was an emergency.
“Excuse me,” she said, knowing she was losing Sonika. Knowing she would have lost her anyway. “I have to take this.”
She went out into the hall. “Yes?”
“Sorry to interrupt you, Allison. But it’s about Katie Converse.”
Her stomach felt like she was in an elevator that had lurched down half a foot. “You found her?”
“No. We found her dog.”
MYSPACE.COM/THEDCPAGE
Happy Birthday to Me
September 13
Yesterday was my birthday. My roommates made a big fuss over me & took me to Starbucks for lemon squares & chai tea. I got a lot of stuff from my family in the mail & a CD from L, my best friend at home. Daddy sent me something separate. Even before I opened it I could tell it was from him. It was lumpy & had way too much tape.
Inside was a necklace from my mom. My real mom. She died from breast cancer when I was just a baby. I don’t have many pictures of her. I’m pretty sure V threw them all away as soon as she married Daddy. The necklace is an amethyst on a silver chain. I’m wearing it right now. I’m never going to take it off.
The whole family talked to me, but finally Daddy took the phone & went out in the backyard to talk to me alone. On my birthday we always go for a hike in Forest Park together, just the two of us. When I get back home we’ll still have to go on our hike, just a few months late. Just him & me. And I’ll tell him I’ve been thinking I could be a senator myself one day, the way Senator X says. Maybe even president.
At dinner, one of the other pages asked where I was from & told me I had a cute accent. That made me smile. Do I really have an accent? In the state I’m from, we pretty much talk like TV newscasters. On the other hand, you should hear him. And just in case he’s reading this, let me say that he’s the one with an accent.
Later we were in the dayroom together with a bunch of other people watching TV. Eventually everyone left, until we were the only ones there.
And that’s all I’m going to say about my birthday.
BLUE MOON TAVERN