Easter week blog off - Part 3

Today's topic, recall a time when a friend betrayed or denied you, as in Judas or Peter's case.  I have been wracking my brain since Monday over this one.  I cannot think of ever being denied by any of my friends.  If I use Peter's example, there was never a point when I learned that someone I trusted renounced our friendship, or said they didn't know me when asked. As for betrayal, I have a few to choose from.

Lets go back to October 2012.  Every October I take part in a month long haunted farm attraction with friends and family. It runs 3 to 4 nights a week, 4 to 6 hours a night.  In that time, I immersed in a realm of drama fit for daytime television.  Now this story happened after a night chocked full of haunting goodness.  We always gather around what's left of our bonfires and swap stories of this group or that group that we scared superbly. Its a good way to unwind, because believe it or not, being scary can be stressful. 

So there I was, sitting on my piece of log, when I heard what sounded like a joke from one of my best friends directed at my sister in law.   Now to be clear, my sister in law is the target of a great many jokes. Is it right? No. Does she make it too darn easy? Yes.  That said, I did a double take, because my brain didn't want to believe what my ears had just heard.  The "joke" was more of a verbal cheap shot at my sister in law's disability. She has trouble with her hand due to a stroke she had as a baby, and one of my best friends had just made light of it.  Thinking back, I'd liken it to handing a slice of cake to someone on a diet, or telling a blind person, "Oh, if you could have seen what I just did" To the speaker it might have been in jest, but anyone in earshot would disagree.  I remember thinking "I did not just hear...He didn't say that.  Yes, he did. Damn it" The wise man knows, there are some things you do not joke about and what I had just heard is on the list.

Its an unusual sensation, being betrayed by someone you would stop a bullet for.  At the time all I could utter was "Dude, really?" I think I was in a state of shock that someone I consider family would verbally attack someone else I consider family.  Jokingly or not this was bad form all the way around. I think I heard my sister in law's feeling of self worth break a little bit.  How to respond to this?  I'm still trying to disbelieve what has just transpired.  I can't deck my best friend across the jaw, but how can I let my sister in law go undefended?  A short while later, she, my wife and I were loaded up and heading home. We sat in silence, our feelings already aired before we even left the gravel lot.  I had experienced betrayal and I had no idea what to do about it.