Alice and Friends
Page 12
Alice went to the desk, removed the paper, and flipped the photo over for John to see. “You said this was taken the day your father had his vision.”
“It was.” He had been told this was coming, but had he really believed? Maybe not. He was afraid for his family’s safety.
“Look at your father. He’s sitting at his desk downstairs in his study and see the pack of cards?”
“He said God was going to give him a sign, but it might not make sense until later.”
“Look at the card.”
John closed his eyes and then looked again. “Ace of Diamonds.”
“Henry Diamond. They call the virus Diamond flux sometimes. Other times,” she used a fingernail to point to the small diamond, “They call it Red.”
“He was right.”
“I don’t know if he were right…exactly, but yes, he was given a sign, and we can see it now.”
“We have things to do before this hits the states; we only have a few hours; we all need to….”
“About that, ” Alice said. She took John’s hands. “There are just us: Me. You. Our son, Mike; Jennie; and the baby in my tummy.”
She shook her head, “There is no one else now. They weren’t…right…real…what we need…and so when people have to go away forever and disappear, we know where they are tossed, right?”
“You. You…no…you didn’t….”
“Cain was in the basement, and wasn’t that a mess of cleaning afterwards? Luke, Aaron, Tom, Father, Audra, Brenda, and Connie are all gone.”
“How?”
“Are you gonna stay with me, or will I lose you to a personality?” Her eyes filled with worried tears.
“I’m here, Baby. How did you do it?”
“I let you boys sleep, and I served stew: cabbage and turnips and ham with potatoes; only the turnips were the root of Monk’s Hood. Aconite. The blueberry juice was filled with the juice from the Monk’s Hood or Wolf’s Bane, if you prefer the flowers. It was over pretty fast. I used the mule to take them to the well.”
“Why?”
“Well, the time is nigh, as we can tell from the news, and we will have plenty now for our little family of five.” She patted her belly.
“We had enough though….”
And they were mean at some points to me, pinching and slapping and hitting, using the water hose on me.”
“I was as bad.”
“No, you were not. And you worked hard on your own to bring me back to you.”
“The women….”
“Weak and couldn’t be trusted.”
“My brothers….”
“They were horrible to me.”
“Father.”
“Gave our baby girl away.”
“I can’t….” John was speechless.
“Can’t believe I did it? Remember my own father; I stabbed him. And besides, my darling, we’re together now forever…just us….”
“But how could you?” John asked, loving her despite this new development. When he could, he needed to think about all of this, to analyze it, and see what it meant. At least he had Alice.
“How could I not?” She laughed. “I am blood of your blood. This is what we do.”
-Fort Worth 2012
About the author:
catt dahman lives with her husband, child, four cats, a dog, and a ferret outside Fort Worth. She graduated from Texas A&M and has a Master’s degree. She’s been writing for thirty odd years and enjoys the genres of westerns, horror, thrillers, and splatter punk. Find her at website, or Face Book, or Amazon.