Chapter 10 - MARIANNE'S DEFENSE
Marianne did not become meek after the reveal.
She became defensive.
“You humiliated us.”
Clara stared.
“I was on the floor.”
“You knew he could see.”
“No.”
That stopped Marianne.
Clara had known only that Eli was improving.
Not that he saw normally.
Marianne turned toward Eli.
“So you deceived even your wife.”
He answered:
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Then Marianne said:
“You sat there while we spoke freely.”
“Yes.”
“That is disgusting.”
Eli nodded.
“Some of it was.”
That answer took energy out of her attack.
Then she said:
“I thought you were using Clara.”
Clara asked:
“Why?”
“Because men like you—”
Marianne stopped.
Men like what?
Blind?
Poor?
Dependent?
She had built an entire moral theory from disability.
Then she said:
“I was afraid Clara would spend her life caring for you.”
Clara answered:
“That was my choice to evaluate.”
Marianne’s voice broke.
“I watched my mother disappear into caring for my father.”
There.
A deeper motive.
Marianne’s father had suffered a stroke when she was twenty-three.
Her mother became full-time caregiver for nine years.
Lost friends.
Work.
Health.
Marianne saw Clara’s marriage through that memory.
Fear became contempt.
Contempt became control.
Then Clara said:
“You could have told me you were afraid.”
Marianne looked away.
Instead she had called Eli useless.
And Clara pathetic.
May you like
Fear explained the map.
It did not justify the destination.
