I led her by the hand into the living room, Mom and Barb following. Bitsy was sitting in her chair by the couch and she looked run through the mill but when her eyes hit Mindy, her torso straightened and her gaze grew alert.
“What’s up?” she asked me but didn’t look away from Mindy. “You said on the message you needed me here but you didn’t say why. Is everything okay?”
“No,” I replied honestly, Bitsy’s eyes grew wide and they instantly flew to Max who was standing just inside the room by Steve, Brody and some other person, a man I didn’t know.
I thought Bitsy looking at Max was telling. I shoved that back, focused and guided Mindy to the couch where we sat, me at her left side.
“Bitsy, can you get close, please, right up here, in front of Mindy?” I called as Mom sat down on Mindy’s right side.
Bitsy wheeled forward and got close to Mindy’s front as Mindy looked between the lot of us.
I looked at Bitsy and stated softly, “I know you’ve had a tough day, a tough week and I wish I had time to explain what was happening here so you wouldn’t be blind-sighted by this. But I didn’t and now, I need you. This is going to be hard, but, will you trust me?”
Her eyes were moving between Mindy, Mom and me and then she looked at me and nodded.
“Can you take just a little bit more?” I prompted when Bitsy didn’t answer.
“I… I think so,” Bitsy answered.
“Neens, what’s this –” Mindy started but I talked over her, keeping my gaze steady on Bitsy.
“Bitsy, yesterday, Mindy tried to commit suicide,” I announced.
Bitsy gasped and jolted back in her chair. Mindy tensed and then started to stand up but I grabbed her hand on one side and Mom grabbed the other side, holding her down.
I turned to Mindy and put a hand to her knee. “Yesterday, darling, yesterday you said you didn’t want anyone to know. And, I promise you, in anything else, anything else, I would respect your wishes.” I lifted my hand from her thigh, cupped her cheek and whispered, “Not this. This is too important.”
“Neens, I can’t do this,” Mindy whispered back, tears filling her eyes, fear stark on her face and my courage took a direct hit but I forged onward.
“Oh yes you can, sweetheart, you can because you’ve got strong women all around you and we’re going to help you do this,” I told her and the tears slid down her cheeks. “You know I was beaten by my boyfriend. You know that Bitsy’s legs were taken away and all that happened to her recently. What you don’t know is that my Dad cheated on my Mom while she was pregnant with me and left her without looking back at either of us for seven years. She’s now married to the love of her life and happy as a clam.”
“Neens –” Mindy whispered on a ragged breath.
“What I’m saying is, life socks it to us and we survive.”
“Neens –”
“We fight.”
She shook her head and the tears continued to fall.
“And when we can’t fight, we learn to turn to others who’ve learned life’s lessons, who’ve survived, who’ll gather close and help us make it through.”
She kept shaking her head and tried to pull away but I dropped her hand and grabbed her face with both of mine.
My voice was fierce when I said, “Mins, we don’t give up.”
I heard crying, Mindy’s and others, maybe Barb, but I kept my eyes glued to Mindy.
“We never give up.”
“Neens –”
I interrupted again and said, “You’re loved.”
“I know,” she whispered, her face blanching at the same time it flinched, what she did to those who cared about her the day before scored into her features.
“No one is angry at you,” I assured her. “We all understand.”