Family Secrets

After all, he taught Bible study at our local church. Mother caught him kissing her cousin, Marie, in the kitchen. He groped cousin Anna under the water as we swam in the pond. Anna’s mother told mine. My thirteenth birthday, in his eyes, meant that I was fair game. I resisted, threaten to tell. Again, Mother caught him lying on the hall floor before an open door with head hung down to watch sister and I shower in the basement. A lifetime of dread for the next incident when, or what, or who. Always uncomfortable in his presence. Thirty-five years, the ugly secret kept, for Mother’s sake. In my heart, sweet relief felt, on the day he died.