Monday, November 19, 2007

messages - submission nov 19

“I’m sorry. I can’t understand you. Lisa please, take a breath and try to talk slower.” I checked the volume on my phone but it was turned all the way up. All I could hear was garble, garble, garble, sob. “Lisa, let me meet you somewhere. Where are you?”
It was starting to rain and since early this morning the temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees. The roads were icing up and I was certain my folks would have a fit if I went out but this was an emergency. I listened for a couple of minutes.
“Then I’ll come there. What do you mean no don’t? He can’t keep you locked in your room. I’ll just come and get you out of there.”
She seemed to be getting things a bit under control.
“What do you mean you’ll be fine?” I paused. She always had a flair for the dramatic, a tendency to blow things a bit out of proportion. Maybe she had just over exaggerated what had been going on, she seemed to be much calmer than the situation seemed to warrant.
“I still think you should let me ... ” She sighed. “Okay, well if you’re tired. I know. No, its okay, I need to finish studying for the calculus exam anyway. Yea ok, I’ll see you Monday.”
I hung up the phone feeling very uneasy. There had never been any indication of any sort of abuse situation before. What if I went over there or called the police and it made it worse or if nothing had really happened. She was probably just overreacting.
Monday morning Lisa wasn’t in homeroom. Everyone kept giving me sideways glances. Finally in first period someone came up and told me. Lisa’s dad had beaten her to death Saturday night.

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