he Parent Trap Indeed

Why do you always have to get so physical?

Mitch... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it.

"Susan..."

"Yeah, Sharon?"

"I..." Sharon looked down at her hands. Under the harsh lighting, they looked nearly as green and pale as the blanket under them. "I suppose I ought to have told you before we hatched our plan... about mother. The drinking, the fits of temper, how she used to hit me on occasion. Not spank me with cause but suddenly just fly off the handle and strike out, sometimes with a wooden spoon, a belt. You know it all well enough by now."

"Yeah."

"I thought she was just angry, frustrated at me, the world. When I met you and realized what happened between her and father I thought, that must be it. The key to her anger must be that father was no longer in her life. I jumped at the chance to fix things, to bring them back together. That had to make everything all right." Sharon might not have been aware of her own tears had she not seen the dark, moist dots on the blanket. "But out of our home in Boston, away from her mother and father it's only gotten worse..."

"Sharon, it's OK. It's not your fault. There was no way you could have known things would get so bad. How could you? It's an unthinkable thought that a mother... a wife could..."

Both girls turned and looked at the man in the hospital bed. Their father, pale and unconscious. The girls had never seen him so still, so weak. But the monitor beeped encouragingly and Sharon matched the rhythm in her head to the soothing and measured words of the doctor.

"The kitchen knife missed his heart by a good distance, girls. Your father will be fine."

"How is he, girls?"

Susan and Sharon both rose from the bedside and ran to hug Verbana, their housekeeper.

"The doctor said he'll be OK." Susan said and all three women gathered back around the bed.

"She's been arrested." Verbana spoke quietly. The girls nodded. "The police didn't want to take her but I made sure. It was a wrench for a house proud woman like me to not clean the blood from the floor but I knew it had to be there. Who'd believe the story otherwise?" Sharon took the older woman's hand before she could start talking any faster.

"You were wonderful, Verbana. I don't know what we would have done..." Sharon was not just talking about the recent events. Ever since two naïve teenage girls had reunited a house of horrors, Verbana had been their last line of defense. She was smart, tough, strong and as a woman, able to restrain their mother in ways their father wouldn't have wanted to risk. "But this can't continue. As soon as father's awake and able to think things through, we've got to convince him to leave mother." The girls exchanged a bitter laugh at the irony.

"And don't worry, Sharon." Susan put in as if reading her twin's mind. "We won't leave you with her."

"You bet we won't." Verbana put in firmly. "Not for a king's ransom."

Sharon nodded her thanks and turned back to their father, her hand over his. "I'm sorry, father. We didn't mean to trap you like this."