Unless you want me to bend it for you.”
A length of lumber had been nailed upright to each side of the bed. Iola held
Olivia’s leg, knee obediently bent, against one of them while Filmore wound a rope around it. Then he slipped a small noose around her ankle.
“Wait, don’t forget this.” Iola took a rag from her pocket and handed it to him. He wrapped the cloth around Olivia’s ankle before binding it tightly to the
wood.
Olivia had realized what they must be intending to do to her and looked from
Filmore to Iola in disbelief. She struggled to raise herself up, the ropes burning
her skin, but couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe.
She began to cry. “Iola, please, why are you doing this to me?”
Iola ignored Olivia’s sobs while they finished tying her legs, forced apart. The
skirt of Olivia’s dress had ridden up and fallen bunched between her legs, so it
still covered her.
Iola returned to the head of the bed and put her hand on Olivia’s forehead.
“You hush that crying,” she said. “The first time is the worst, so it’s best for us
all if we get it over with double quick.”
Iola nodded sternly at her husband, who stood motionless at the foot of the bed. Then she grabbed the fabric of Olivia’s skirt, yanked it up, and gasped.
“Shame. Shame on you. Traipsing around with no drawers. And calling
yourself a Christian woman.” Iola pursed her lips and shook her head, staring at
Olivia’s nakedness.
Olivia shrieked, in shock at being suddenly exposed, unthinkably violated.
“You! You’re the devil.”
She thrashed from side to side, her heart pounding. Her humiliation – Filmore
standing there gaping at her – was complete. Then she stopped moving and
stared at him. He was biting hard into his bottom lip, his eyes darting from side
to side.
He doesn’t want to do this, Olivia thought. It’s Iola making him.
He hesitantly placed a sweaty palm against the bare skin of her calf. When
she jerked away in revulsion, he pulled his hand back, as if from a flame.
“What’s the matter with you? You can’t do this,” Olivia shouted. “Let me go.
You let me go.”
“The pain will pass.” Iola stood next to her. “It’s nothing. Pay it no mind. No
mind at all. But salvation is eternal. There’s no use in you fighting it. It’s His will. He brought you here to us. You’ll see the right of it, come time.”
“Iola …” Filmore took a step back.
“I told you to get on with it.” Iola lowered her voice and that was more
frightening than shouting would have been. Filmore scraped his way back to the
foot of the bed, climbed onto it, and knelt between Olivia’s legs.
Weak and dizzy, Olivia couldn’t believe this was happening. Then Filmore
put his hands on her knees. His touch was sickeningly real and she knew this was no nightmare from which she would awake.
“Get your filthy hands off me!” She jerked her knees from side to side, the little she could.
Filmore shrank back. Iola set her mouth in a hard line and gave Olivia another
