Free Behind the Pine Curtain by Gerri Hill Page B

because my mother took me to Brother Garner to have him heal me of my sickness, to have him pray the devil out of me? Now that was a fun time, let me tell you.
    Or how about the fact that I’m destined to spend eternity in hell, paying for my sin of loving women instead of men?” Jacqueline met Kay’s eyes. “Or maybe I’m just afraid of lightning bolts!”
    “Okay. You got me beat.”
    “Tell me, Kay.”
    Their eyes held, blue on blue, and Kay felt the weight lift somewhat from her heart. For so long, she’d kept it all inside, never talking it out with anyone, just skimming over the surface with Rose, with her mother.
    She’d always insisted she was fine, just fine. But the crystal blue eyes she remembered were there, looking into her soul as they’d always been able to do, seeing things no one else was ever able to see.
    “I . . . I was dating Billy Ray Renfro when you left, remember?”
    “Yeah, I remember.”
    “Well, I guess about a year after high school, everyone started asking when we were going to get married. He was the only one I’d ever dated.”
    “Why? As beautiful as you were, as you are, I never understood why you picked him.”
    Kay shrugged. She didn’t remember ever being overly interested in boys then. There was just Jackie. That was enough.
    “I don’t know why, Jackie. It just happened. And when he asked me to marry him, I thought, what else did I have? I was still stuck here in Pine Springs, you were gone, and there was no one else. He was working at the mill then, had a steady job, so I said yes.”

    “Forgive me, but I always thought he was a loser.”
    Kay laughed. “Well, you were right.”
    “I’m sorry. If I’d been here, I would never have let you marry him.”
    “Oh, yeah? At the wedding, when Brother Garner asked for objections, you’d have stood up?”
    “Absolutely.”
    Kay laughed. “Yes, I believe you would have.”
    “I’m sorry. Go on.”
    “Oh, Jackie, this is hard for me, you know.”
    Jacqueline reached over and took her hand. “Tell me what happened.”
    Kay watched as their fingers entwined, remembering all those other times when they’d come here to talk, how easy it was to talk to Jackie, to tell her things she would never consider telling anyone else. She looked up then, meeting blue eyes. How was it that she felt so comfortable telling Jackie things, but Jacqueline had been terrified to talk to her about the most important thing in her life?
    “Why couldn’t you tell me, Jackie?”
    Jacqueline frowned and nervously brushed the hair over her ears. “I thought this was your time to talk.”
    “It is. But we always talked about everything, Jackie. Everything . Why couldn’t you tell me about that?”
    “You know what? Maybe some day I’ll tell you about it. But not now.
    Now we’re talking about you.”

    Kay nodded. “Fair enough.” She leaned forward. “Don’t think I won’t hold you to it.” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Billy Ray was violent,” she blurted out. She felt her fingers being squeezed by Jacqueline, and she squeezed back. “It’s okay, Jackie. I knew it going in, I think. He was . . . he was never gentle, you know. And it just kept getting worse and worse. I couldn’t seem to do anything right.
    Nothing was ever good enough. Dinner was late, and he got mad. I had dinner ready early, and it got cold. Just little stupid things, but he’d get angry and . . . hit me. At first, a slap here and there. Then, well, it just kept getting worse.”
    Jacqueline swallowed the lump in her throat, watching her friend as tears escaped and slid down her cheeks. Jacqueline reached out and brushed them away.
    “You never told anyone?”
    “No. I was too ashamed. If I had bruises, I made up some excuse.”
    “Bastard,” Jackie whispered.
    “He came home really drunk one night. Which wasn’t unusual. But he wanted to have sex. I couldn’t sleep with him. I hadn’t been able to sleep with him since, God, since