by Zuko, Joseph
“Oops, sorry sir.”
Karen recognized the voice. It was her brother, Troy. She hadn’t heard him pull up. The salesman took a step back and looked up at the man towering over him. Troy stood a solid six two and two hundred twenty pounds. A cigarette hung lazily out of the corner of Troy’s bearded mouth. An old baseball cap sat backwards on top of his head and a set of dark sunglasses were perched at the end of his nose.
“I’m sorry I was just leaving.” The salesman spoke quickly.
“No problem. If you’re still thirsty feel free to drink from the garden hose at the front of the house.” Troy took a drag off the Marlboro and blew the smoke right into the salesman’s face. It was clear that he had heard everything the creep had said to his sister.
“Okay. Thank you for your time.” The salesman sidestepped into the little flowerbed to get past Troy.
“Watch the dahlias,” Troy hollered as he pointed down at the flowerbed. The salesman leaped out of the bed and speed walked down the driveway.
“Thank you for stopping by!” Karen yelled after him.
The salesman scampered down the street. Troy slid his sunglasses up onto his forehead and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth. “I think that guy really liked you.” He winked at his sister. Robin stopped chasing the chickens and realized who was on the other side of the fence.
“Uncle Troy!” she squealed.
“Red Robin!” he squealed back as he popped open the fence.
“What are you doing here?” Karen reached out for a big hug. She disappeared under her brother’s broad shoulders. Robin wanted up into his big arms right away.
“Mama texted me that she forgot to let the chickens out,” he said as he propped his little niece up on his shoulder.
“She texted me too.”
“Where’s Val?” he asked as he stubbed out the cigarette.
“She’s in there. Sick on the couch.”
“Well maybe Uncle Troy can make her feel better.” He gave Robin a playful shake as he headed for the backdoor.
On the ride home there was even more police activity on the streets.
It must be a full moon tonight.
“Mama, I’m hungry.” Valerie coughed into her sleeve.
“I offered you food at Ganny’s. Why didn’t you eat then?”
“I wasn’t hungry.”
Luckily they just passed a Burgerville. Karen pulled into the drive-thru. This was her favorite fast food place in the entire galaxy. She got the same thing every damn time. Burgerville should have just called it the “Karen Special” just so she didn’t have to waste time saying so many words.
“I would like two waters. A pepper bacon cheeseburger on a gluten free bun prepared and two cheeseburgers, no ketchup and cut in half. Plus a large fry.” See, the “Karen Special” would save so much cotton pickin’ time. She kicked the air conditioner on high and laid the fries out on the vents to get them cold enough for the kids. The fries were always so hot and for whatever reason her kids liked food almost cold. If the food were too hot they would spit it out and cry. She downed the burger like it was the only thing keeping her alive. Everyone's bellies were full and that made Karen happy.
It was the same race all over again on the way back home. This time Valerie was the one that had to pee. They sprinted back into the apartment. Again she fought with her keys to get in the door. The next-door neighbor stepped out of his place.
"Hello," he said as he waved at the kids. He was deaf. So Karen made sure she looked him in the eyes.
"Hello, David," she said back. David was the one neighbor’s name she could remember because he signed it to her the first time they meet. She didn’t know sign language, but the moment stuck in her brain. He noticed Valerie's pee dance.
"Someone's got to go," David said as he pointed do at the little one.
"Yep. It's an emergency." Karen forced the right key into the hole and got the lock to pop. Karen pushed Valerie in first. "Bye. Have a good one," she told him as she closed the door.
"Bye." David signed the word at them as he said it.
A second after she closed the door there was a knock. She checked the peephole. It was David. He never knocked. Karen opened the door. David pointed at the doorknob.
"Keys."
Karen looked down at her keys hanging from the knob. Jim found her keys like this at least once a month.
"Thank you." She pulled the keys out of the door. Robin already had her pants off and she showed David just how free she was with her little body.
“Naked!” she announced.
David laughed out the words, "No problem," he waved again and headed out of the apartment corridor. She closed the door and turned the bolt. Valerie exited the bathroom.
"Lay down bubba. I'll put on a cartoon." Karen tossed the keys into her purse. Botchy needed to be let out the backdoor. Karen had set up a little fence to keep Botchy in the back porch area. Jim put a wood dowel in the sliding glass door track for safety. So Karen could open it for the dog and leave it open without worrying about someone walking in on them. It slid five inches before it came to an abrupt stop. Botchy scooted out the door. Karen’s phone rang and vibrated. It sounded like it was coming from her purse.
"Phone! Phone!" Robin pointed at her purse.
"Thank you for the phone update, baby." She found it at the bottom of the purse. It was Jim. He normally called about this time. Either he just had a good sale and he was calling to tell her about it or he was calling to say how dead it was at work and he was going to complain. She slid her thumb across the phone.
"Hello."
"Karen! Are you and the kids okay?" Jim sounded freaked out.
Chapter 3
At the local Safeway only a mile from Karen and Jim’s apartment, the upstairs neighbors Cliff and Tina, were doing some shopping. Their two-year-old, Brea, sat quietly down in the front seat of the fake car attached to the cart. She steered the toy wheel like she was the one running the show.
Cliff fought to get the stupid thing down the aisle. This kind of cart was a bitch to push around because it was a few feet longer than a normal shopping cart and handled like a boat. It kept the little one happy so it is worth the strain.
The two older girls wandered ahead of them. The little ones were dressed in colorful clothes, in stark contrast to how the parents were dressed. Tina wore a pair of skintight black jeans and a black Depeche Mode t-shirt. Cliff was in a pair of black jeans with the knees worn out. They flapped open with every step he took. His blank gray t-shirt was well worn and hung nicely from his broad muscular shoulders.
The kids pointed excitedly at every colorful box on the shelf.
“I want that,” the nine-year-old, Eve said.
“Me too,” the five-year old, Alex seconded her older sister.
“Me three,” the voice came from Brea down in the car. She loved that joke.
“Guys, Daddy didn’t get any overtime last month so we need to keep it simple,” Cliff said as he pulled a store brand box of cereal down off the shelf and tossed it into the back of the cart, “Plus I don’t think a girl that gets suspended from school for smoking in the bathroom gets to pick any food.”
“I only took one puff. Carly was the one smoking it.” Eve rolled her eyes at her Dad. She had been hearing this all week.
“Who got caught? Who was kicked out for a few days?” Tina said flatly.
“Me.” the eye rolls kept coming.
“What did you learn?”
“Don’t get caught,” she said as she pulled at her hair sheepishly.
“That’s right. If you’re going to do something bad, don’t get caught.” Cliff nodded his head at her. Eve was a very smart kid. Both parents knew she was much smarter than they were at that age. After the initial disappointment wore off, the lesson they wanted to teach had morphed. As the week of suspension dragged on the lesson went from: “Do not ever do anything bad ever again.” to a more realistic “Don’t get caught, dummy.” Maybe it was the wron
g thing to teach the child. Who knew? Over the last nine years they had become keenly aware that they were making up most of this parenting shit up on the spot.
“We are really good parents.” Tina looked at her husband. In comparison, they were light years ahead of the people that raised them.
“Really, really good parents.” Cliff gave her a little smooch on the cheek.
“You guys are dorks,” Alex giggled into her hands. She was repeating something her older sister said way too often.
“Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Tina acted like she was more shocked than she really was. This kind of language had been popping up more and more ever since Alex started going to school. “You think you’ll get any extra shifts this month?” Tina asked as she touched Cliff’s shoulder with a gentle pat.
He hesitated with his answer. “Maybe, boss says there’s a new strip mall going up at the edge of town. If he gets the bid we’ll be floating in cash.” He muscled the cart straight again.
His wife read him like a book. He was keeping something from her but she didn’t want to get into it now so she kept the conversation rolling.
“When I finish nursing school we’ll be really rolling in the cheddar. No more store brand shit.” She moved in fast for another smooch and Cliff met her halfway. There was something in his eyes every time she asked about his work or if she mentioned becoming a nurse.
“Mama, you said a bad word,” Eve shook a disappointed finger at her mother.
“Which one? Store brand? That’s not a bad word.”
“Not that word.” The kid played right into Mama’s game.
“Your Mama never says any bad words. You only think she said it.” Cliff winked at his wife.
“That’s right. Your ears must not be working. Call the doctor we got a girl that can’t hear,” Tina said as a devious smile stretched across her face.
“You guys are so weird,” Eve, pointed at a store brand box of mac and cheese.
“Yep, grab four.” Tina nodded at her daughter.
The girl’s little hands snatched the boxes down off the shelf.
“Mama, can we have tuna fish for sandwiches?” Alex squatted down in front of the cans of fish.
“Yes, get five of the ones on sale.” Tina playfully bumped hips with Cliff and knocked him off course.
“Hey, this thing is hard enough without you pushing me around,” he said as he bumped her right back.
“You guys stop it. You’re embarrassing me.” Eve dropped the boxes of macaroni into the cart.
“Dat way,” a tiny hand popped out of the fake car and Brea pointed for them to go right. She was a real big help. Alex dropped her cans of discount tuna into the back of the cart. Something caught her eye at the front of the store.
“Mama, Daddy, look,” Alex, pointed her little hand back down the aisle. The two parents took their time to turn and see what she was talking about. It’s not very often that a five-year-old finds something interesting that is actually interesting to the parents. It was a man. He stood hunched over and pressed up against the window just to the left of the electric sliding doors. The doors remained shut. He hadn’t set off the sensor.
Cliff and Tina had to do a double take and if a record were playing music in the store it would have scratched to a halt. The man was dressed in his Sunday finest. A black suit and tie, but the thing that caught their eye was the fact that he was missing a good portion of his face. His body swayed back and forth. He looked confused and lost, like this was the first grocery store he had ever seen. Blood smeared across the glass as his forehead rubbed slowly from one side to the other.
A gangly teenaged stock-boy stopped filling a display of apples and moved closer to the front door. “Tom get over here. This guy is really hurt!”
The man in the suit’s forehead sounded like a windshield wiper dragging across dry glass. A chunk of metal protruded from his chest. It was blood soaked and sticking through both sides of his torso. The sharp metal tip ground loudly across the window every time he swayed back and forth. The manager jogged over next to the stock boy.
“Wow! What the… Darleen, call an ambulance.” Tom told the woman behind the cashier’s counter. The two co-workers moved slowly for the front door. They had a difficult time telling if the man was looking at them, his eyes were solid black. The two of them moved in a little closer. Seeing someone this injured had put the two men into a state of shock.
“I should go see if I can help,” Tina moved away from Cliff’s side.
He quickly grabbed her arm and stopped her, “I don’t know. We don’t want to get sued. Let the store take care of it.” He gave her arm a squeeze. She knew he was right, but it was in her nature to want to help people. “Let’s go, kids.” The two of them maneuvered the oldest children so their curious eyes couldn’t see the injured man.
The sensor to the front door was set off when Tom stepped into its range and the door slid open. The man at the window jumped with animal purpose. He darted in through the doors and a second later he pulled Tom to the floor and had chomped off most of his fingers with a few bites. Tom’s screams filled the store. Cliff let go of the cart and took a few steps back into the aisle to get a better look.
“What’s happening?” Tina called after him.
“Someone is getting attacked!”
The stock-boy reached out and pulled the man off of Tom. He was swiftly pulled to the ground and the man with half a face tore into the teen. His teeth smashed down onto the young man’s thigh.
Blood sprayed onto the cheap linoleum floor.
Cliff bolted down the aisle and grabbed a twelve pack of beer that sat on top of a display. He got close to the attacker and tossed the box at the man with everything he had. The domestic bottles clanked around in the box as it flew through the air. It hit the man with the missing skin and knocked him off the teen. The box exploded and bottles crashed to the floor. The air filled with the metallic smell of blood and the sweet smell of hops. The shattered bottles fizzed on the floor and the blood mixed with the amber colored suds.
Cliff looked over at Tom. The manager was laid out on his back, his mangled hands in front of his face. His screams were only broken up by the few seconds it took to fill his lungs with more air. A few of his fingers dangled by threads of flesh. Blood pumped out of his wounds and back down onto his face and chest.
The teen clutched his leg. His black slacks had gone shiny with the blood that pooled underneath the fabric. He whimpered fearfully. Cliff had worked construction for ten years. He had seen his fair share of on the job accidents. Smashed thumbs and deep saw cuts, but nothing at all like this.
Eve and Alex had broken out in tears. Tina put her arms around them and pulled the two in close. She tried her best to cover their young ears from the cries of pain.
“Cliff, what the hell are you doing?!” Tina called after him from the back of the store.
“I don’t know. It’s a mess. Keep the kids back,” he said as he looked over to the woman with a phone pressed to her ear. “Did you get ahold of an ambulance?”
She shook her head no, “Nine-one-one is busy. No one’s picking up.”
“All right don’t panic!” Cliff looked around and realized all eyes were on him. There were a good twenty people, staff and customers watching the action unfold. Cliff had never liked being the center of attention. He wished he had not gotten involved, but it was too late now. He looked over the scene before him.
“Shit,” he whispered. It was the same as when you decide to clean out the junk in your garage but have no idea where to start. The man in the suit with the missing face slowly got back to his feet.
“Hey asshole, what are you doing?” shouted Cliff. It dawned on him that this guy might try and attack him. One of the bottles survived the crash and rolled over next to Cliff’s foot. He bent down and plucked it from the floor. Cliff held it up in the air by the neck. Deep down he had always wanted to smash someone with a beer bottle like in a movie bar fight.
The man lunged at Cliff. The bottle shattered across the man’s forehead and chunks of glass were buried deep into the exposed muscle. There was a distinct sound of the skull cracking from the blow. It was like a baseball hitting a wooden bat at ninety-miles an hour and Cliff had hit a home run. The sound echoed through the entire store.
The body of the man in the suit stiffened, fell straight back and his skull cracked again on the hard floor. Cliff’s heart pounded in his chest. What was left of the bottle shook in his hand. He kept it perched high in the air. Ready to strike if this crazy son-of-a-bitch got up again. Black blood oozed out of the cracked skull and mixed with the other two growing pools on the floor.
“Cliff?! You tell me right now, what’s going on?” Tina demanded after him. She stayed behind the shelving with her arms wrapped tight around the children so they didn’t escape and run to their father.
“He tried to attack me and I hit him with a bottle. They pick up that call?” Cliff looked over to Darleen.
“I keep calling but no one’s there.” She dropped the phone on the hanger.
Cliff looked back over the audience. A guy in his early twenties held up his phone and recorded everything.
“Hey, dipshit. Stop recording and call the cops!”
“No way, bro. I’m selling this to the news.” The guy with the phone angled around to get a better look at Cliff’s face.
“Turn that shit off!” Cliff realized he was holding the jagged broken bottle while threatening the guy and doing it all on video. Cliff tossed the broken bottle to the ground and it shattered. A girl standing next to the cameraman thumbed through her phone.
“The internet is going nuts. Something about an infection that spreads through bites,” she said as her face held a look of disgust.
“Infection?” Cliff rubbed the hairs on the back of his head, “What kind of infection is that?”
An old man with a cane waddled next to the bleeding teen. He struggled to get down on one knee. He read the kid’s nametag. Jake.
“All right Jake. Let’s take a look.” The old man set his cane down and produced a pearl-handled switchblade from his pants pocket. He flicked it open and cut the cuff at the bottom of Jake’s pants. The fabric tore easily once he got it going. He ripped it past Jake’s knee and revealed the mouth-sized gash in his thigh. The tear in his skin already looked festered. The veins around the wound had turned black. Cliff looked over at Tom on the ground and the same black lines streaked down his wrists.