Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka

my arms and drop my head. Something tickles my cheek and I swat at it. Was it a spider? I shudder again.
    A wave of claustrophobic panic threatens to undo me, but I clench my jaw, knowing that something serious is happening upstairs and I have to remain calm. In my old life, when I was first living on the streets, an experienced girl taught me a technique for making the time with customers go by faster. I learned to detach my mind from my body, and I’d travel to faraway, exotic places. I imaginedhot sand between my toes on a white sand beach in Mexico, the burning heat of the sun scorching my skin, or the cold slap of wind as I cycled through the foothills in Nepal. My adventures were endless, and each day I searched the Internet for more and more places to travel to in my mind. Maybe it will work here too. I hunker down, letting my mind drift.
    The down quilt covering me is thick but weightless. I sink back into the fluffy pillows and gaze out the window at the snowcapped mountain peaks of the Swiss Alps. I stroke the Saint Bernard dog who is lounging on the bed beside me, panting happily. I press my forehead to his and scratch him behind the ears, not even minding his doggy breath. If he were a cat he’d be purring. I am safe, warm and loved. There is food to eat and family to hang with...
    A sudden stomp on the floor over my head snaps me back to the present. The angry voices are still at it in the room over my head. I try to find my way back to that imaginary bed in the cozy room, but I’ve begun to shiver and I find I’m no longer able to detach. What is going on upstairs?
    I squeeze my knees even tighter to my chest. I thought the police had given up on me. We first got to know one another when I was just a little girl, living with my mom. Social workers used to arrive on a regular basis, sometimes to take me to foster care and sometimes to check on our living conditions. I realize now that even though she was into drugs and hadn’t a clue about how to bring up a kid, Mom loved me like crazy, so she raised hell at the sight of them. I was all she had and she didn’t want to lose me.She’d push me behind her and throw pots and pans at the social workers, swearing her head off. They began bringing police protection with them. By the time I was twelve, I no longer waited for the social workers to rescue me from her. I’d begun running away from home, and the situation reversed. The police began returning me to her.
    There’s only so many ways for a thirteen-year-old girl on her own to survive, and it seems there’s nothing you can’t get used to after a time. That’s when the police started dragging me to group homes, and then juvie jail, but the situation never changed. As soon as I was released, I was right back on the streets. It was the only thing I knew how to do. I couldn’t make it in school. I was too different from the other kids, and they never failed to remind me of that.
    Everything changed when I met Jacob. At first I thought he was just another customer, but he only wanted to take me out for lunch once a week when he came to town to pick up a load of fertilizer. After a time I grew to trust him. He began telling me about Unity, and it sounded like a nice place with everyone working together for the common good. Despite that, I don’t think I would have agreed to come with him if it weren’t for the close call...
    My shivering turns to shudders and I squeeze my eyes tight. I’ve been able to forget this horror, until now...
    He was going to murder me. In sickening detail he described how he was going to do it...carving my naked body with his hunting knife...slowly getting deeper...nicking my organs. The pain would be severe, but not so severe that I’d pass out and escape the torture. He said that I would pay for my sins as theothers had done before me, starting with his mother. There was nothing I could do, my hands were tied behind my back.