Devine Intervention

He looked between us once more and said, “It's either her or me.” I looked back at him in shock. I couldn’t believe he was forcing me to choose between my sister and my husband; I mean, I knew that Eva’s behavior was out of control, but this? It was too much.

“I can’t have her going around town accusing me of crimes I never committed in places I’ve never been,” Adam continued, completely ignoring Eva. We both were.

“She’s mentally ill,” I replied, looking sheepishly at Eva. Much to my surprise, she was relishing this conversation with something like a gleam in her eyes.

“This is more than that; she’s vindictive. You went to a work dinner function with me, instead of your usual Wednesday night tacos and Margaritas, and the next morning, I am answering questions about the robbery that happened last week down the street.”

“That could be a coincidence,” I reply, not even believing my own point. “Can we talk about this later?”

“No. I want Eva to hear this conversation,” he replies with the smug self-assurance that I fell in love with, but also hate.

“Why?” is all I can think to reply.

“Because I want her to see that her behavior has consequences,” he retorts, looking pointedly at Eva.

“I think she knows that,” I say, leaving the obvious hanging in the air like smelly trash.

“Obviously not,” he retorts. I just sigh and look at Adam, this man who came into my life in a whirlwind, just when I had given up hope of ever finding someone to love. It was just after my brother died and my parents abandoned Eva, leaving me to give her the stability she needed to modestly function. Adam looked out for me; he reminded me that things would get better and that I was kind, capable, and beautiful. It felt like a fairytale. Five years later, I’m back in the same situation I was in with my parents. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They blamed her, my parents did, and they weren’t entirely wrong. It was her false police report of a guy with a gun in a stolen car (hers) that caused the police to stop my brother’s vehicle with their guns drawn. But was it fair to blame her for the rookie cop’s overreaction when my brother went to get his license from the wallet in his front pocket?

I don’t know how to respond, so I punt. “I need some time to think,” I say as I grab my coat to leave. As I go to shut the door, I almost hit Eva, who was right behind me.

“Alone,” I say to her pointedly. She looks at me with her big, doe eyes, projecting hurt like it is a second skin. I turn and head to my car, but I can feel her watching me, driving a hole through my resolve.

As I drive, I start to feel less panicked. The road and the scenery calm me. It is so beautiful here. But just as I have that thought, another comes in like an unwelcome guest, could I do it? Could I kick Eva out? What would that even look like?

I imagine dropping her off at the train station with a one-way ticket to Boston or Philadelphia, and my eyes tear up. That’s too dramatic, I chide myself. I scour my brain for names of her High School friends in an attempt to conjure up someone I could guilt into letting her sleep on their sofa. Unfortunately, by the time she graduated – how she did that, I have no idea – everyone she knew had already created a force field to exclude her, and rightly so, after the endless false accusations and hysterical bouts of rage.

I’m spiraling, I can feel myself starting to panic, so I pull into a Starbucks for an iced Hibiscus tea. I sit in a comfy chair and pull up Craigslist. There was a time when this platform was used solely for hookups, but now it has evolved into more of an old-school want ad. What I am looking for is a cheap room or apartment that I can afford because, of course, Eva doesn’t work; she can’t. The Government, in its wisdom, thinks that $587 a month is enough for her to live on, which is how she came to live with Adam and me. It’s laughable.

Just as I’m about to give up, I see a listing. “Housemate wanted to live with an elderly woman with mild dementia. Free room and board for overnight presence and a watchful eye.”I almost dismiss it, then remember how much Eva loved our Grandmother, how patient she was with her when she got dementia. They had this special, unique bond since Eva was born. I remember feeling jealous of them as a little kid because the two of them were inseparable.

As I sit here pondering the ad, it occurs to me that all of her dangerous behavior started right after Grandma died in Eva’s Sophomore year of High School. Desperate, I reply to the ad, then return home.

When I enter the house, Adam is on the sofa playing on his PlayStation. He smugly greets me with, “So, what’d you decide? Her or me?”

“You, but I need some time.”

“How much time?” he replies without looking up.

“Not sure yet, maybe a couple of weeks?”

“That sounds reasonable,” and with that, we are done talking.

My phone pings while I am making dinner. It’s the family of the elderly woman. We agree on a time the following day for a meet and greet. Now, I just have to figure out how to sell it to Eva.

I head to her room, knock on the door, and say, “Can I come in?”

“Yes,” she replies, and when I enter, she says, “What’s up?”

“Well, I think you know you have to move out, but I can’t just kick you out because I wouldn’t do that to you, though honestly, after today, I thought of packing up your stuff and changing the locks.”

She nods. That’s the thing about Eva. She knows when she has gone too far, and I still believe that some of this, like the false police reports, is volitional, not fully her illness.

“So, remember how much you adored Grandma?” I continue.

“Yes,” she replies hesitantly.

“Well, I found a situation that might be perfect for you. Might give you some purpose and has free room and board attached.”

“What’s that?”

“Basically, you live with this elderly woman with dementia. The main requirement is to be there overnight so she doesn’t go wandering. Otherwise, my understanding is that she is pretty functional.”

She says nothing, just looks at me, so I continue. “We have a meeting with them tomorrow at 10:00, to see if the two of you get along.”

Again, no response.

As I get up to leave, I turn back and say, “I’m sorry, Eva, but it’s this or the streets. I will change the locks if I have to.”

Much to my surprise, the following morning Eva is up and ready to go at 9:30, sitting calmly in the kitchen finishing breakfast. We head to the meeting spot in silence, but I can feel a hint of nervous excitement coming from her; something I haven’t seen in a while.

The meet and greet goes incredibly. I haven’t seen Eva smile and talk this much in a long while. Of course, it helps that the woman, Betty, resembles our grandmother; she could be her sister or cousin. Her son seems pleased as well, and near the end, he says, “Do you want to come by and see the house?”

“Yes,” Eva immediately replies.

As we head out of the park, I notice the woman looking at Eva warmly, and it warms my heart to see someone, anyone, look at her like that.

The house is a cute Bungalow with three bedrooms. The one Eva would live in has a bed, a dresser, and a small desk. It’s perfect, bigger than the room she has at our house. The visit is about to end when Eva says, “Is it okay if I stay with Betty for a while?”

Surprised, I look to Betty’s son, then Betty says, “Of course, dear,” and the two of them link arms and head back into the house.

“I think it’s a match,” the son says to me after they go back inside.

“I am so relieved,” I reply. “She was really close to our grandmother. I don’t think I realized how much she missed her. I think this is the perfect situation for her. As I said on the phone, she has had a difficult time these past few years.”

“So has my mother.Your sister is the first person she has liked. This is our tenth interview.”

“Wow, I had no idea.”

“I’m relieved we found you,” he responds.

“Me too, you.”

The next day, Adam helps Eva pack up her stuff and move into Betty’s home. As we leave, Eva says, “Adam, I’m sorry that I did what I did, but maybe it was meant to be so that I would finally take a step toward moving on.”

I stand there with my mouth agape.