My Sister's Eclipse

“Has he found it yet?”

“No… not yet.”

Cherie and her sister Morgan sat on the front porch of a cozy rental cabin nestled in the splendid evergreen forests of The Rocky Mountains. A plume of grey dust steadily blew away in the chilly wind before them, dispersing into the undulations of deep green firs and Limber Pines. Their respective partners, Avery and Tom, had just taken off down the winding gravel road to get some dinner from town. Cherie noted the time on her phone as soon as they were out of sight. She had 32 minutes of freedom before they’d be back.

Morgan stretched her legs out and gave the ochre-stained rails a small push with her foot. The girls began to sway gently on the wooden porch swing. Morgan turned to her sister, ready to enjoy their long-awaited peace. The dust kicked up from the car dissipated into the woods. The glimmer of a rich golden sunset caught Cherie’s chestnut-colored eyes as it pierced through evergreen branches. Morgan lingered on her sister’s gaze of sunlit citrine: focused and unwavering. Was she waiting for every speck of dust to fall? For the fog to clear and reveal the mens’ absence as true?

“Are you hiding your new phone in a good spot?” Morgan asked, trying to take her sister’s mind away from worry.

“In the bathroom,” Cherie replied, “I cut a small slit into one of our fabric storage bins and just slipped it in there. He’d really have to go digging to find it this time.”

“Thank goodness. I tried to get you a phone that’s small and thin enough to hide somewhere like that. Soon we’ll have this extra bank account funded enough for you to work on an exit strategy.”

A short, pitiful chuckle sprouted from Cherie’s lips.

“Exit strategy. Who knew I’d ever need one of those, right?” she said.

Morgan reached a comforting hand out to her shoulder. Cherie flinched away for a moment before quickly apologizing.

“Ouch! Sorry, that’s the shoulder that…”

“Don’t be sorry, hun. I forgot,” Morgan replied, “I’m sorry.”

Morgan took one of her sister’s hands into her own and slowly caressed it with one worried thumb. The tender spot on Cherie’s shoulder stung gently but promised to fade. She thought of the tight-squeeze hugs they were used to giving each other, how they would sting so many of her tender spots now. If I squeeze you harder, I love you more! Morgan declared to her in their youth. No way! I love you more! Little Cherie replied, trying miserably to match the strength of someone five years older. They giggled in between every “ouch!” until one of them finally surrendered, too tickled and sore to carry on.

“I’m really glad I got to come up here and see you, sissy,” said Cherie.

The sisters hadn’t spent this much time together in almost a year. When an invitation to watch a solar eclipse in the stunning mountains of Colorado came to Cherie from Morgan and her husband, she was certain her boyfriend wouldn’t be interested in going. In one of the few moments of fate that played out in her favor, however, Tom agreed. Watching the eclipse from the mountainside was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Especially since the entire trip would be on Avery and Morgan’s bill.

“Me too. Luckily, Tom seems to get on well with Avery. He’s so good at keeping his composure around him, I don’t know how he does it,” said Morgan.

“Tom envies Avery’s business prowess. He succeeded at everything Tom failed at and I suspect he’s playing buddy-buddy with him to try and get a toe in the door of one of his businesses,” Cherie replied bitterly.

Morgan laughed, “Yeah, good luck with that. Avery hates Tom almost as much as I do.”

Cherie checked the clock on her phone to see how much time she had left: 26 minutes. It was a miracle she hadn’t received the usual check-up text that Tom would send any time they were apart.

“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Cherie asked.

“We should probably leave around eleven if we wanna hike up to the spot in time. It’ll be about one and a half miles up until we reach the cliff, then we can set up our picnic and enjoy.”

“I can’t wait,” Cherie said with a wide grin.

Morgan grinned back at her and she immediately noticed the broken tooth at the very corner of Cherie’s beautiful smile. An unignorable pressure gripped the muscles in Morgan’s chest and sent her own cheerfulness into remission. She turned away and pretended to be intrigued by a chipmunk hopping across the firewood pile. Her hand squeezed Cherie’s a little tighter.

How many ways has my sister been broken? she wondered, fighting the familiar sting threatening her nostrils.

The men returned with bags of goods from the drug store and a brick oven pizza for dinner. They all ate together and chatted excitedly about the hike to see the solar eclipse tomorrow afternoon. An eavesdropper may have assumed they were all good friends with no ill history between them from the way they shared liquor and laughed about old stories. When the couples parted ways for the night, Morgan and Avery felt the relief of escaping such false normalcy once the door to their room was closed and locked.

“I’m ready for bed, honey,” said Avery, “I’m beat.”

Morgan grabbed her laptop from her bag and slipped into bed next to her weary husband. She kissed the side of his head and lovingly rubbed his back as he curled up under the blankets. Tipsy and socially drained, he'd fall asleep fast.

“I know,” Morgan replied, “I’m sleepy too but I wanna stay up and make sure Cherie’s stuff is uploading from the extra phone I gave her. I’ll be right there with you soon, babe.”

“Take your time, baby. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Morgan opened her laptop and navigated to the online cloud storage where Cherie’s spare phone should be sending all her photos and documents. She hadn’t opened it in a while. It wasn’t something she enjoyed looking at but since Cherie couldn’t access her spare accounts often, Morgan took it upon herself to make sure all the evidence was being saved. The last time her spare phone was found they lost a lot of vital information and Cherie couldn’t talk to her freely for six months. Morgan could never forget that day. A kind coworker brought over Cherie’s pet turtle because an enraged Tom had almost smashed him with a hammer. For the next six months, Morgan woke up each day to the raw feeling of anguish tightening her chest. Is my sister okay? Is she hurt? Is she alive?

Morgan scrolled past some documents with times, dates, and events relating to Tom’s outbursts and controlling nature. She mustered the strength to not linger on them until she reached a section of screenshots from Cherie’s phone showing conversations she’d had with Tom. A sickening curiosity took hold and Morgan began reading some of the messages.

Tom

6:40 pm: you better be home when I get back I swear to God. I saw you go somewhere else do you think im stupid?? I have your location on like do you really think you can sneak around without me knowing?

6:42 pm: answer me bitch. You better have a good one.

Cherie

6:43 pm: The medicine was out of stock so I went to the store down the road baby im sorry

6:43 pm: I’m home now its ok

Tom

6:45 pm: you really don’t listen and it pisses me off

Cherie

6:45 pm: im really sorry hun I should have told you

Tom

6:46 pm: stfu

6:46 pm: wait til I get home bitch

Morgan’s skin prickled up with scorched anger. She minimized the screenshot and scrolled to a batch of pictures that were taken about two months ago. Morgan, already tipsy and pulsating with rage, didn’t need to enlarge any of the photos she saw. The shock took hold of all her senses immediately and froze them in a vice grip of disturbing disbelief.

Her little sister, her sweet and loving best friend, the heart of gold that glowed with generosity and gentleness, stood in the series of photos unrecognizable. Any evidence of her innocent spirit and bright kindness was absent in the eyes of the girl in the pictures. A veil of apathy had taken over her expression and posture. Dark eyes and flurries of blemishes caused by stress had dominated the visage of Cherie. Morgan could never imagine the catalog of torment that was now burning into her eyes from the computer screen.

Cherie carried a collection of black and purple bruises from her eyes to her legs. She’d been burned with the sides of hot skillets and the cherries of cigarettes. Chunks of her hair had been vengefully cut off in the middle of the night. Rough fingernails had dug into her soft skin. Alongside some of the images were copies of medical bills for a variety of “accidents” and ailments. From infected wounds to fractured bones, she’d been treated at several different clinics. Cherie was forced to rehearse her excuses as Tom drove her to the next urgent care center. She'd told fallacies about clumsiness and bad luck to many unsuspecting nurses.

Morgan, already horrified, scrolled past another series of threatening texts and audio recordings labeled with things like “Death Threat” or “Physical Altercation” followed by the date and time of occurrence. For only a moment she thought of listening to them, but she didn’t know how much she could break her own heart in one night. Her shock crumbled away to despair and she choked out a heavy sob that instantly woke her husband from his stupor.

“What is it, honey? What’s wrong?” he asked frightfully, flipping over and taking Morgan into his arms.

“I--I can’t…” she sobbed, “My sister… my poor little sister…”

Avery took a glance at the laptop screen and understood immediately. As Morgan covered her face to muffle her cries, Avery closed the browser and shut her laptop. He placed it on the nightstand beside them and returned to holding his distraught wife.

“He’s a monster,” Morgan growled through grit teeth and warm tears.

Avery stroked the back of his wife’s head and muttered soft reassurances to her, tasting the lies of them despite their good intentions. Her heavy heart thumped furiously with pain. A pain so deep and heavy that even Avery felt the weight of it within his own chest. He felt as if he could sob with her too.

At their wedding, Morgan declared her wish for everyone to share a love like her and Avery’s. She made eye contact with her teary-eyed sister as she spoke. Young and unscathed Cherie dabbed tears from the corners of her eyes with the sleeve of her lavender dress. Morgan’s intention for her sister to find true love felt alive and viable that day. Cherie didn’t even know Tom yet or any of the cruelties he bestowed on women. She was still used to flower bouquets as thoughtful gifts instead of apologies and quiet evenings in cozy places where only the airs of peace were shared. She was still used to the flurries in her stomach being excitement instead of anxiety and phone calls being laced with sweetness into the early morning. Playful laughter, refreshed giddiness, and the childish awe of finding your oh-so-treasured person.

Like an eclipse, Tom had done his best to snuff out the light of hopefulness in Cherie’s life. Morgan’s words were not powerful enough to ward him away then, but the horrors of his presence had played out long enough.

“He won’t get away with this,” Morgan promised with a shaky breath.

She squeezed the fabric at the shoulder of Avery’s shirt into her tightened fist. Fervid thoughts of hatred and vengeance played on repeat in her mind.

“I won’t let him.”

Morgan awoke the next morning to a stuffy nose, tender eyes, and a headache. She rolled over into the empty space beside her and looked around. Avery was already up and about, somewhere in the kitchen talking to Cherie and Tom. His pleasant laugh carried from there and down the hall to Morgan’s tired head. The rich smell of Colombian coffee wafted along with it, piercing the stale, woody smell of the room and opening up her sinuses a bit. As much as she didn’t want to, she needed to get up and start getting ready.

She joined the rest of them in the kitchen and finished what was left of the coffee. Tom’s presence made Morgan’s jaw tighten with anger. She focused intently on her warm, bitter black mug of energy to subdue the urge to take the empty pot and smash it over his feeble head.

Despite her restraint, no one could ignore the terrible mood she seemed to be in compared to yesterday. She blamed her unusual state of reserve on poor sleep. When Cherie went to grab some painkillers from her purse for her, she felt the thread of their sisterly bond tugging at her heart. What’s sissy really upset about? she wondered.

Caffeinated and excited, the group set out in the morning towards their mountain of choice. Up through the curvy highways stood the grand peaks of fourteeners flanked by never-ending miles of wild, gorgeous land. Ashy white peaks spilled into deep green valleys and frigid azure lakes. The men marveled openly at the landscape while the sisters sat quietly in the backseat, their strange tension unnoticed.

“I’m sorry you don’t feel good,” Cherie said sweetly to her sibling, “Of all days…”

“I’ll be okay once I wake up a little more. Don’t worry about me,” she assured her with a forced smile.

After nearly thirty minutes of weaving through the mountains, they finally reached the parking lot at the base of the trailhead. It was unexpectedly packed for a Tuesday morning. Morgan’s heart sank a little as they drove in circles looking for one of the last couple spots. Avery chuckled as luck struck them at the end of the lot where some early morning hikers were leaving.

The group got out of the car and enjoyed the relief of stretched legs and fresh air. They collected their backpacks, cooler, and hiking poles. Avery led the way up the trail with the map on his phone. Morgan walked behind Cherie and Tom. She split her time between marveling at the beautiful forest around them, watching her steps over curvy tree roots and crunchy brown underbrush, and beaming laser-focused hatred at the back of Tom’s head.

The trail itself was relatively mild until the last half-mile when they took a steep, rocky path up to their picnic spot. A small clearing in the sparse trees awaited them and led to a wide cliff edge that overlooked the tranquil valley below. The spot would be perfectly private aside from the other group of four that had taken up the space on the right side of the cliff. These fellow eclipse-viewers turned to welcome them and moved their seats and gear a few feet over as a courtesy.

As they all settled into their portion of the outstanding view, Morgan found it difficult to ignore the nerves prickling the top of her spine. She tried to meet each of her sister’s worried looks with a fake smile. Cherie, however, suspected something behind the weakness at the corners of her sister’s mouth.

Tom opened his small lawn chair and set it down a couple of feet from the edge of the cliff on a slightly uneven patch of stone and dirt. He made sure to place the cooler closest to him so that he’d have easy access to the cans of beers and seltzers. Morgan sat a little behind him and to the right, close enough to smell that he’d already spent the morning drinking anyway. Cherie set up her chair next to Morgan’s in the hope that she could offer some bits of sisterly consolation throughout the afternoon.

The moon’s silhouette was already kissing the sun but still far away from totality. They all put on their eclipse viewing glasses and started unwrapping their sandwiches and popping open bags of chips. Morgan could barely work up an appetite. She sat and ate one pitiful chip at a time as everyone else dug in. Before long she noticed Tom was already working on his third can of beer and had eaten his sandwich as if he’d been starving for days. When he stood up to get a pack of cigarettes from his bag, the cheap chair wobbled threateningly on its uneven legs. A small gap of about two inches was left between one leg and the ground. This happened to be the leg closest to Morgan. In fact, it seemed the perfect space for the toe of one of her hiking boots…

“Damn, what a great idea this was,” Tom declared as he sparked a cigarette.

“Absolutely,” Morgan agreed, a real smile finally pulling at her lips.

The totality of the eclipse was creeping upon them. Tom flicked his cigarette butt off the cliff and reached for another beer. Cherie admonished him for littering and he shook his head and waved his free hand at her as if her words were hungry mosquitoes.

“Shhh, just hush up alright? I’m tryna have a good time, dammit!” he snapped drunkenly.

Cherie immediately unblossomed, pulling back into herself.

“Sorry…”

Tom went to grab another cigarette from his pack and dropped it on the ground. He swore and leaned over to pick it up. His chair teetered again to one corner. Morgan’s eyes shot down to the opportune space that was once again between the foot of his chair and the ground. She took another look at the sky to see that the moon was already nestled into the circumference of the hot white sun: Totality. Everyone around them was looking up in silenced awe. Tom was still hunched over and fumbling to grab the cigarette that had rolled away.

Without a second thought, Morgan firmly shoved her foot beneath the lifted leg of Tom’s chair and pushed upwards. The shift in weight made him lose his balance and he tumbled over. He was too intoxicated to do anything to stop it. His chair dumped him to the edge of the cliff and his own velocity sent him right over the edge.

Tom’s screams echoed all around them as terrible roars of desperation. There was no mistaking the heavy thuds of his tumbling body and the sickening cracks of thick tree branches. All the air left Morgan’s lungs. Her chest seized and she looked around frantically once again, meeting the wide eyes of a woman in the other group. Her mouth was agape and her brows wrinkled together in confusion behind the eclipse shades she held up to her forehead. Morgan and the girl stayed locked in a distant, horrified stare. How much did she see…?

“Oh my God!” Cherie screamed.

Everyone looked over and the yet unseen horror rippled through them, forcing them to their feet. They gathered towards the edge where only Tom’s chair lay in crumpled betrayal. Avery and another man peered over the edge and could only make out a few broken tree limbs. Tom was nowhere to be seen.

Cherie pressed herself into Morgan’s arms, shaking and staring out into the woods below with wide, tearless eyes. The sisters stayed locked together in shock while the people around them tried to call emergency services. Morgan and the other girl kept making brief, hesitant eye contact. Each time, Morgan’s certainty that her crime was witnessed solidified a little more.

“We’re gonna have to go back down the mountain!” Avery said frantically after none of them could get a signal.

“We can stay here for when they show up,” a man from the other group offered.

Avery thanked them and quickly started packing up their gear. He led the way back down the trail as Morgan and Cherie huddled together behind him. He continued to try calling 911 all the way down but couldn’t get in contact until they were in the parking lot once again.

The next few hours dragged by as park rangers, a drone, and a helicopter began their search for Tom. The police spoke with everyone and they all seemed to agree on what had happened: Tom was getting a little too drunk and chose the worst possible spot to sit. One second his cigarette was rolling away, the next he had fallen and was gone. The eclipse was completely over by the time they found his mangled body. As they all suspected but didn’t want to admit, no one could survive that fall.

“I think I should sleep with Cherie tonight,” said Morgan.

Night had fallen and they were back at the cabin getting ready for bed. The shock they all shared was still grinding between them and threatened to make all of their sleep hell. Avery popped some melatonin and nodded.

“I think you should too,” he agreed.

Morgan entered the guest room and found her sister as a snugly-wrapped lump in the blankets. She was staring at the wood panel wall across from her, tears creeping down the lines of her face and soaking the pillow. She crawled into the bed with her and remembered all the times she had done so in their childhood. Stormy nights, nightmares, and bogeymen who were surely creeping under the bed. Morgan thought the days of protecting her sister from monsters were long behind them.

“Hello, sissy,” Cherie said weakly.

“Hey, sis…”

The evidence of Tom’s previous existence still scattered the room. Wrinkled clothes on the floor, his laptop charging on the dresser, and a half-empty bottle of honey-flavored whiskey on the nightstand. A large part of Morgan wanted to revel in achieving his ghostliness, but the eyes of the girl who may have seen what she’d done were haunting her. Morgan had saved her sister, but she’d never be able to wash the blood off her hands. No matter how tainted it was.

“I don’t know how to feel, Morgan. I… I feel so sad but relieved at the same time. But every time I feel relieved I get scared again. Like he could walk through that door any second,” Cherie confessed.

For the rest of Morgan’s life, she would have to worry about the consequences of her actions coming to knock on her door at any time. She would have to know that no matter how evil Tom was, she was guilty of stealing his life. Maybe if that girl hadn’t seen the incident she wouldn’t feel so hung up on the morality of her choice: the choice to save her sister. When the moon passed over the sun in those tense, decisive minutes, Morgan created a new dawn for both of them: Freedom in exchange for a lifetime of guilt and impending punishment.

He’d kill me if I left. I know he would.

Morgan remembered the first time Cherie made this frightful confession. Anxiety gripped Morgan’s chest. She replayed the image of Tom falling off the mountain, his face stricken with fear and helplessness. She imagined how he’d look when the search team finally found him amongst the thick brush of the valley. A face beaten and battered and limbs twisted in all the wrong ways. It quelled the lava in her heart for a moment.

“You may not believe it yet, Cherie, but…” Morgan pulled her sister close, “You’re free.”

I may not be, Morgan thought, but you are, sis. You are.