The Safety of Stairs

By Sue Katz

No one could explain why she kept falling down their flight of stairs. Her mother and father couldn’t remember when it started, but Lynne would never forget that night when her sister Brenda was five and she herself was four. While their father was saying good night—as he did every night—Brenda squirmed out of his embrace, ran out to the hall, and flung herself down the steps. She screamed at the bottom so that their mother, who was downstairs washing dishes, ran to her.

It had been a broken elbow that first occasion. But as time passed, Brenda seemed to figure out how to fall so that she only got bruises, not breaks. Their father kept tucking them in at night while their mother was usually downstairs. Just sometimes, Brenda would start fighting with him to get away, rush to the stairs, and throw herself down.

After about three times, their mother took Brenda to the doctor. She was tested for epilepsy, for multiple sclerosis, for sleep-walking. Once or twice she was asked what happened, but no one listened when she said that she fell down the stairs so that she would be safe.

When their father decided that Brenda was getting to be too much trouble, he paid more attention to Lynne. One night when he tucked her in, Lynne said, “That’s not nice, Daddy.” Brenda realized what was going on and ran out to the hall and threw herself down the stairs. The counselor suggested therapy three times a week. Her daddy spanked her with her pants down. Her mother washed the dishes.

Sue Katz’s business card identifies her as a “Wordsmith and Rebel.” Her writing has been published on the three continents where she has lived, worked, and roused rabble. She has been a martial arts master, promoted transnational volunteering, and partner danced more than her feet could bear. Her journalism and stories have been published for decades in anthologies, magazines, and online. Her fiction, often focusing on the lives of elders, include A Raisin in My Cleavage: short and shorter stories, Lillian’s Last Affair and other stories, and Lillian in Love.

Sue’s new fiction collection, A Raisin in My Cleavage: short & shorter stories, was released this summer by Consenting Adult Press. Visit her website for more information.

Photo credit: Get directly down via a Creative Commons license.