Elena

She had been there for hours, sitting in front of that old stubborn computer that would every now and again give her that stupid message saying she had done something illegal and that it would turn off…
“Something illegal”, she’d think every time she turned it on again. “What is illegal?”
Elena had just walked barefoot out of a thirteen year marriage, which she’d thought would last a life time.
He had cheated on her. No, he had betrayed her, that is the word: BETRAYAL.
Three months had already gone since he had taken his last look at her eyes. And then, on that warm summer night her younger sister called her from a public phone booth. “Please Elena, you must forgive me. Please help me. I don’t know what to do.” Elena and Susan had never been anything more than sisters. Never friends or good comforting shoulders one to another.
“What is the matter Susy? Where are you?”
“Please say you forgive-me. I need you to forgive-me. I couldn’t help it.”
“What are you talking about? Where are you?’
“I am in front of his house. Please come pick me up. I can’t move…”
Susy was crying a lot, she seemed out of her mind, and Elena had no idea of what could have happened. “Susy, calm down, she said. Tell me where you are.”
“Here, just in front of Mike’s house. Please, you didn’t tell me you forgive me.”
“Stay there. Don’t go anywhere, don’t talk to him. I am going to pick you up. Just wait a minute.”
Elena was confused. She went out on the street and walked to her brother’s house, not far from hers. She told him Susy was in trouble and they needed to pick her up.
They got on the car and Harry drove to Mike’s house. It was a twenty minute drive, and they didn’t say a word. When they got there, they saw Susy sitting on the pavement. She looked insane. Elena saw a light in Mike’s house, she walked towards it, came by the window and looked inside. There he was, with his new girlfriend, the mother of his six month old son, whom Elena had hidden from her family, trying to protect her children from a greater shame. She knocked on the window, and said to him something she would not remember a second later. She was astonished at the possibility that her thought could be right. The woman tried to say something back, but Elena ignored her, she turned to her sister, put her in the car and Harry drove them back home, in the most horrifying silence.
He left them both in front of Elena’s house and went back to his house. “If you need something, call me, will you? he said “Okay, bye”, she replied.
Susy walked inside the house with her head down. She went straight to Elena’s bed, and lay there, as if the entire world had cracked on her head.
“So”, Elena tried a word. “How long has it been?”
“Twelve years”, was the reply. “He has always told me I was the one he loved. I’ve waited for all these years and now when I thought we would be happy, I find him with this woman.”
Elena, couldn’t say a word. She walked slowly to the living room, looked up the number of Suzy’s psychiatrist and called him.
“Well, you have to be strong”, he said. “I know this is something odd to ask from you, but your sister is a potential suicide, and you are the only one who can back her up. Please be there for her. Comfort her, and make sure she has company all night.”