by D. R. Mather
“You see honey; there are things we can control and things that we can’t or aren’t allowed to control. This is what I found to be the case with your mom and dad; they had been taken by greed and desire, but it wasn’t in the normal way, something evil set up residence in them, drove them, and controlled them. Something evil planted a seed in each of them, they never got the choice to mend or change their ways, and it used them for its own dirty deeds.”
NOW Judy was looking up and right into Kevin’s’ eyes. She sniffled and stumbled out her first words.
“You mean they were possessed?”
”Not like you see in the movies honey, not even close. There isn’t going to be any pea soup vomiting or heads spinning in a circle here. This is real, and it buries itself very deep. Only a few special people can find it and remove it.”
Judy and the others looked a bit confused.
“Would you like to see it baby?”
Now the confusion peaked for everyone.
“See it?”
“Aha, I have it with me now. I found it in them and I removed it. I wanted you to see it.” He turned to all of them, “And I want all of you to see it, so everyone gather closer around me.”
Kevin sat straight forward in the sofa and put his right hand out, palm up.
Alex was the first to dare to speak, “See what? I don’t see anything.”
“Give me a few seconds to get it out.”
A dark orange glow began to form right in the center of Kevin’s palm. As he sat, it started to become three dimensional and grew in size. After a minute, everyone’s eyes were fixed on what was floating above Kevin’s hand. It was about the size of a tennis ball and seemed to be fire, but not fire. It did a slow spin in random directions with no purpose other than to move. It was a very dark red and orange colored ball, with both colors flowing in and out of each other.
“Judy, this is what I took out of your mom and dad.” He looked at her and she was mesmerized by it.
“Is….is it dangerous Kevin?”
“No baby, not anymore, I killed its own desires, this is what remains.”
Then Kevin put his left hand out, palm up, and a blue ball began to form. Judy looked at Kevin’s eyes then at the blue ball as it spun very rapidly in his left hand.
“Honey, what’s that?”
“We are about to witness the death of this part of evil, once and for all.”
He raised his left hand over his head with incredible speed and smashed the blue ball into the red one. A blinding blue and white light filled the room for one brief instant, and then both balls were gone. Kevin separated his hands and looked at everyone there, then turned back to the woman he loved more than his own life.
“Judy, I’d like you to meet your mom and dad,” he said as he gestured for them to come forward. He slipped off the sofa and over to the side. She was up on her feet instantly and grabbed them both. The crying was a hard, hard cry; one most people don’t ever see.
“Come on guys, I’ll buy you a coffee,” Kevin said to everyone else. They all followed him out into the kitchen.
When Kevin got to the kitchen, both Barb and Will were standing there.
“Is everything okay?” Will asked.
“Everything’s perfect Will, we need you to set up room fifteen for the night as we have two guests staying at the Inn.”
Barb, in her mid-fifties, now showed them that she wasn’t too old to jump in place either, just like Judy was famous for doing. Beth slipped past Kevin, as did April and Cindy. They all met Barb in the center of the kitchen and had a hug and celebration party in what was a tiny space. Will began to head out to the desk for keys when Kevin stopped him.
“Better give it more time Will, Judy just met her parents for the first time.”
”Okay, sure, whatever you say Kevin.” Will looked confused but did as he was told.
Kevin turned to Barb, “What does it take to get a bunch of coffee going here anyway?”
They all moved about the kitchen for a while, enjoying what had just happened in their own ways.
***
Judy was close to shock, but she was still able to function once the crying had ended for a little while. They sat, mom on one side, dad on the other. When the crying ended, the apologies had to take over.
“Judy, I’m so, so very sorry we’ve done this to you. I don’t know if you’re ever going to be able to forgive us.”
“Mom, the hugging and crying we just did right here, that was me forgiving you.” Judy took both of their hands, “I never understood what I did wrong all the time...”
“Honey, don’t…”
“I have to dad. I tried as hard as I could to be as perfect as you wanted me to be but it was never enough.” Tears began to roll down Judy’s cheeks again, “I have this thing in me, and it’s always asking me to love everyone and everything. When I turned it to both of you, it always seemed to have the opposite effect; it was as if it pissed you off. Now, thanks to the man I’ll love forever, I know it wasn’t you at all. Now I can create a whole new childhood in my mind that will be so much more than what I had.” The tears were heavy from all three of them now. “I want you to know this and make it clear in your hearts, you are my mom and my dad and I love you both. From this point on we start a new relationship, one we can all prosper from. Do you both understand that?” Both of them could only shake their heads; they knew that they wouldn’t be able to talk even if they tried.
Keith looked at her after gathering himself up, “Honey, I want you to know that Kevin brought me by the office before I got here, I resigned as chairman of the board and told them I’m breaking up the company, selling off the assets.”
“Dad, you didn’t have to go that far.”
“Yes I did honey, I knew I did the minute Kevin had finished talking to us. It wasn’t his idea, it was mine and your mother’s.”
“What about me, should I move back home?”
Mom covered this question, “We talked that over with Kevin as well and we all agree that this is your home for now, you have everything you need right here. So we will be mom and dad, and this will be your home until such time as you decide differently.”
Something left Judy that day, something that had been very slowly choking the life out of her. Luckily, it never returned to finish the job.
***
That night, Judy made love to Kevin. It wasn’t as much a shared event; she took control and kept it. She had a lot of things to thank him for and no other way could express it more than this.
The following morning was a wonderful time. Breakfast was great, and Barb made omelets to order, with just about every filling you could think of. Will was right beside her, helping out. They had two hotplates running at the same time and it seemed everyone was starving. Judy and her parents controlled the show – well, Judy did anyway. Kevin just sat back and watched for the most part. This morning he had almost instantly started to see a new, ‘cleaner’ Judy emerging. He knew that what had been inside of her, trying to make the happy moments sad, had gone. Now he saw a Judy that didn’t have to fight for her own soul. Kevin liked what he saw. Sure, she was bouncy and perky, she always was, but now, those in-between moments where she would cloud over were gone. When she stopped talking; which was rare in itself; the smile stayed. Kevin thought everyone could see it. He sure hoped so; it was a thing of beauty. He heard a loud horn and went to the window.
“Looks like your ride is here,” he said. Everyone got up to see them off.
Mom and dad left to go home and Judy was alright about it. Kevin didn’t know if it was the fact that she’d made peace with them, or because they were only thirty minutes away, or both, but Judy just kissed them both and waved as they left. Her smile never wavered.
When they were out of sight she turned to Kevin, “One more time, thank you.” She kissed him and wrapped her arms around him, the wonderful ‘Judy’ smile still there. As everyone was walking back to the Inn, Judy suddenly stopped dead.
/> Kevin turned to her. “What?”
“Carry me, big boy.” She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. When Judy said “Carry me,” he carried her, it was a simple fact of life.
Half way up the walk, Cindy turned to Roland. “Carry me big boy?”
Roland looked at her, saw her winter coat trying to explode from the load beneath and said, “You’re kidding…right?”
Everyone got a laugh and Cindy grabbed Roland by the back of the neck and moved him on. “I think I got screwed in the ‘big boy’ department,” she said, and they all went in.
***
The fire was warm, the company was perfect. Kevin was reading a newspaper, and Judy’s head was on his lap as she stretched out on the sofa. April’s lap was her foot cushion. Kevin thought she was sleeping until he saw the bottom of the paper folding up and out of sight to be replaced with Judy’s face.
“Hi handsome.”
“Hi baby, having a good time?”
“Umhum…” and she snuggled his leg.
April looked over, “Hey you two, get a room!”
Judy giggled, April giggled and Kevin only shook his head, pretending to be in deep concentration with the newspaper. Judy lay back on Kevin’s lap and a few seconds later she felt something ‘thump’ the side of her head.
“Oh, why Mister Chase, who could be knocking at the door at this late hour?” she whispered so that the others couldn’t hear She slipped under his paper again and smiled at him. He winked back and Judy secretly slid a hand up and over to Kevin’s center, grabbing firmly and squeezing. “Why, I do believe I know who’s at the door,” she said softly. No one heard this. Well, almost no one, April was watching the whole show.
“OK, I’m outta here.” April got up, smiled and went over to another chair. She was next to Cindy and Roland now.
Cindy saw her move. “Something wrong?”
“Wrong? Good lord, no, things are going right. A little TOO right! We may need to curtain off that area over there in about ten minutes.” April pointed over to Kevin and Judy.
All three of them looked over. They couldn’t make much out, but Judy’s right arm was definitely up to something because her elbow was sticking up far too high on the underside of her. Kevin LOOKED like he was reading but only because he still held the paper in front of him. However, as Cindy pointed out; “Kinda hard to read with your eyes closed isn’t it?”
April kept looking from across the room, “This is really hot though, normally you’d have to pay a ticket for this stuff.”
Suddenly April had a hand on her head and her head was turned in Cindy’s direction. Cindy stopped turning April’s head when their eyes met. “Eyes front lady,” she said.
April looked at Cindy, “Nuts.” She then got up and went over to the dining room for more Christmas cookies.
Kevin finally managed to control Judy and things quieted down. At least he could stand again now; ten minutes ago and it would have been a major embarrassment. Judy gave him all kinds of pouting faces, but Kevin won this one.
“I was just having some fun honey.”
“And you’re going to pay for that fun later, but for now, we need a meeting in the library,” he said. Judy giggled and sat up.
Ten minutes later, Will put his newspaper down from in front of him and found the room was empty except for Barb, who was reading a magazine, “What the heck happened? Where did everybody go?”
Barb put her magazine down and scoped the room, “Well son of a gun, when did this happen?”
“HUH,” said Will, and put the paper back in front of him. Barb did the same with her magazine.
Everyone was in the library, talking about Kevin’s plan. The words ‘shocked’ and ‘wow’ were used a lot.
After Kevin had finished, he looked at everyone, “Questions anyone?” Alex raised his hand like it was third grade; Kevin laughed a little. “Alex?”
“How do we eat?”
“Easy – microwaves and frozen dinners. We can order food and have it delivered if the roads are clear. Trust me, we’ll find food when we need it.” He thought about his backpack “Yes April?”
“Will we be without power, heat or both?”
“Nope, everything works out so that no one has to suffer, other than an occasional dust mask here and there, and of course the cleaning.”
Beth took a turn at question time, “All that stuff all over the yard… will we get blocked in sometimes? Some of us have to go to work.”
“Not a problem, I’m going to have Bill come over tomorrow and clear the far side so that all the stuff can be set up there, out of the way. The ground on that side of the driveway is frozen now, and he won’t hurt the lawn underneath with his plow. So we all agree to this? We will all help out where we can and keep out of the way where we can’t?” Kevin got one tremendous, hearty, and smiling “YES” from everyone. “Then tomorrow morning Judy and I will go into town and get the ball rolling, class dismissed!”
After they returned to their room, Judy asked if Kevin could pull it all off in only four months. Both of them were getting undressed as Kevin talked.
“Yeah, if I organize it right and I can get enough men, I think I can.”
They both stopped when they realized they were about six feet from each other and completely naked. That night, Kevin paid Judy back for her little living room ‘plays time’ thing in spades. She accepted every dime he paid her. When they fell asleep, Judy had her head on Kevin’s arm and they were both facing each other, with their arms wrapped around each other.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Benny was sitting in a room with Stan and Mark. “I can’t believe that happened,” he said. “Who the hell tipped off the cops? Do you have any idea just how much that cost us?”
“Yeah, someone screwed us over real good!” Stan said, getting in on it as well.
“Yeah, that’s one way of putting it, only, that general said the place was secured, I just don’t get how the damn cops found out, unless the general has a leak somewhere.”
“Either that or we do Benny.”
“Hey, now there’s a thought. Na, couldn’t be, only me, you and Mark knew about it and you and I sure wouldn’t talk to an…” Benny trailed off as he pointed over to Mark, who was sitting at a table, eating. Mark knew something and he’d learned it the hard way. He’d learned that he was in way over his head and that he wanted out. This was supposed to be about getting rid of Kevin at the Inn; this was anything but that. He’d been formulating a plan to escape for two days now. It sounded right but he needed to make sure that both Benny and Stan were either sleeping or not around. Food made Mark a little happier; until he did his great escape he would drown his problems with this cheeseburger and fries. As he took a bite, two shadows surrounded him. Benny and Stan were on either side of him. Mark stopped in mid chew, “What?”
“Mark, old pal,” said Stan. “Tell me, exactly where do you go when you make all those food runs of yours?” Stan slowly walked around to the other side of the table, planning his interrogation strategies in his head while he looked at the table, and not at Mark. He picked up a small bag of Meth that was on the table and pretended to examine it as he made his way to the opposite chair, so that he could sit and face Mark head on. Stan rather liked playing detective. He was about to reach the chair when he snapped his head up to the sound of ‘POP, POP’.
Mark was no longer at his seat, he was on the floor; Mark had enjoyed his last cheeseburger. Benny stood beside him; his .44 in his hand.
“We ain’t got time for this shit; we gotta make that money back fast.”
Stan just stood there and watched Benny slip the gun back into his pants. “Benny, we don’t even know if Mark was the snitch or not?”
“True, but we did know he wasn’t going to cut it in this racket either, and he knew far too much already. Stan my man, Mark had to go.” Benny grabbed some of Mark’s fries, turned and left the room.
Chapter Twenty- Five
April
was reading when she suddenly snapped her head up and looked around. Kevin, Roland, Alex and Will were off in a corner, talking about something unimportant. Cindy, Judy, Barb and Beth were huddled together, going through a fashion magazine or something; they were having a big discussion about some new boots.
Kevin looked over at April, “Something wrong April?”
Now everyone was looking over at April. Her hand was across her upper bosom area and she looked like she couldn’t breathe. Kevin was in front of her in a flash, the others followed.
“April, are you ok?” She seemed to be breathing, Kevin could tell, but she couldn’t talk.
Judy came and sat beside Kevin, “Honey?”
April’s eyes were wide open; suddenly she began to see in front of her, “Oh, oh my, I just had a horrible image in my head. I was eating something and suddenly there was a horrible pain, then I felt nothing, like I was, well, just, no more!”
Judy looked at Kevin then back at April. There was sweat seemingly coming out of every pore of April’s body, “Well, what happened? What did you do?”
“I…I…I wasn’t doing anything. I was reading and I started thinking about Mark, wondering what he was doing; you know, if he wasn’t stealing from the state he wouldn’t have been a half bad guy, and then suddenly I felt like I’d died or something. Like there was no more me!”
Kevin got it immediately, “Okay guys, spread out some and let the woman breathe.” Kevin was already helping April off the chair with one hand as he said it, “I can field this one, just hang back for now.”