Chapter 30: Flinging Accusations

The next morning, I was sitting at the dining table in the galley at five minutes until eleven, waiting on Eileen when Maura plopped down in the chair across from me.

“I don’t think you are a very nice person!” she said abruptly. Her mom came up the steps from their cabin about then and stopped right behind Maura. She quickly put her finger to her lips to signal me to be quiet about her presence.

“Why do you say that?” I asked Maura innocently. I thought I knew where this was going.

“Why, for the way you treated my mother earlier this morning, up on the bridge. It was disgusting!” Maura replied.

“How old are you, Maura? I asked.

“What has my age got to do with anything?”

“Apparently, a lot.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” she asked.

“Had you ever heard that story before?”

“No.”

“Have you ever met Billy and Benny?”

“Benny died in Afghanistan before I was born. I’ve met Uncle Billy several times at family gatherings and such, but he lives in California and doesn’t travel much. Why?”

“In all that time, have you ever heard your mother speak badly about either one of them or got the sense she was keeping you away from them?”

Maura had to pause and really think on that one. Finally, she said, “I don’t think so ... I’m not sure.”

“Then I want you to ask yourself a question. Does your mother think that what they did was bad?”

“Uh ... I don’t know.”

“You never told me how old you are, but I will assume that you are an adult, or almost adult. And one of the things adults do is think things through and then make decisions on ALL the evidence available. So, I’ll ask you again. Using your adult reasoning capacity, does your mother think they are evil? Did she appear to you to be suffering or not enjoying what was happening to her?

“What has her thinking that they are bad have to do with what you did to her this morning?” Maura asked in frustration.

“Think! Maura. Figure out the simple things before you start flinging around accusations.”

“No! I don’t think she hates Uncle Billy. Until this morning, I didn’t know that they had raped her, and I still think what you did was rape somehow!” she was almost screaming.

“Sweetheart, you should be very careful flinging around the word rape. And what Daniel is trying to say, is that things aren’t always as they appear.”

“Mother! I didn’t know you were listening,” Maura said, “I was trying to tell Daniel that I did not like what he did to you this morning!”

“Yes, dear. But what you don’t understand, is that I ask him to do that.”

Maura was stunned at her mothers’ pronouncement. “But ... but...” was all she could sputter out. She sat there in stunned silence until Eileen leaned over and placed her hand on Maura’s hand.

“Maura, what happened between Benny, Billy and me was very personal. To understand, you would have had to have been there. Or at least lived a while longer to understand the world around you. Was I mad at the time? Yes. Did I find a way to deal with that anger? Again, yes. I’ll even tell you what I did to get even sometime. And maybe some of the things we did when we were older.”

“But Mom...” she cried.