Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1)

by Chris Finkelstein

  “What’s that, dear?” Martha asked.

  “Give him love,” Jan said, and he smiled at her, “Just like you.”

  Martha’s heart warmed. “You are one amazing little boy,” she said with a smile as she tenderly rubbed his crest.

  Jan looked pleased. “I’m going to go see Dad,” he said, and he hopped off his chair, and went back to their bedroom.

  Chapter Twelve

  Salom, Interrupted

  T

  he past year had gone by much too quickly for Rebecca and Jan. Martha had a difficult time of her own, still upset over Rebecca’s recent departure.

  It was a day off work. Martha was in the living room, listening to some NOV sanctioned music on the radio. She did not care to expend the energy on the music player. Jan was at school. He would not be seeing Rebecca there anymore. Martha sighed one of many since Rebecca’s departure a couple of weeks ago. Jan was still very depressed at the loss of his best friend. Rebecca’s mother Salom had returned home a week ago, but Martha was giving Salom time to settle before she visited. To be truthful, she resented Salom for Rebecca’s unfortunate departure.

  “Salom, what —” She could not think of the words — no one was there to hear them anyway. She tried a few endings — “why would you come back, knowing what was going to happen to Rebecca?” That was a good one, but a line she would never use. “What kind of person are you now? How sane are you now?” Martha was emotionally drained from attempting to sort out the meaning of a little girl that she dearly loved, being sent off to — God only knows. She would have done anything to keep Rebecca with her own family at her young age, but NOV law prohibited it.

  Then there was Hais. He had to make her cry on her last night home. What a bastard, Martha thought. She remembered Salom again, now stuck with Hais. I really should do something. After all, it’s been a week since she returned.

  Martha brightened up with a simultaneous statement, “I know! I’ll bake a cake, and invite her over. I’m sure she’s ready to get out of there for a bit.” She had just purchased the latest cake mix that had a new highly refined yama fraction. It was supposed to produce the lightest and fluffiest cake.

  After preparing it, Martha spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon cleaning while the cake was baking in the oven. Hais was not home, so this would be a good time to go over to Salom’s house. When the cake cooled down and was finished, Martha went over to see if Salom might want to come out. She went to Salom’s door, and knocked. She waited for a while, and knocked again. There was no answer. “Salom, it’s me, Martha!” she called out towards the door. Do I hear something inside? Then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Salom opened the door.

  Martha was prepared for something bad, but nothing like this. It was not Salom. The wretch in front of her did not even seem to recognize Martha. “Salom, it’s me, Martha,” she said with care.

  Salom stood there, staring at Martha’s chest. “Martha?” she asked as though to herself.

  Martha bent down to meet Salom’s gaze, and with a smile said, “I wanted you to come over to my house. I’ve baked a cake for you.”

  Salom’s face gave way to a slight smile. “Cake?” She took a furtive glance at Martha’s eyes. “For me?” Then she looked at Martha again, with heartbroken eyes, and said, “Martha?” Salom was bent over, as if she was ducking, and she was covered with scars upon scars. Her weight was that of a child.

  A noisy four-contiss cargo wagon came by, and it startled Salom. She showed a fleeting look of dread at the loud sound as it passed.

  Martha reached out to hold Salom’s hand. Salom began to pull back, but Martha insisted, and Salom did let her hold her hand. “Why don’t you come out of the house for a while? You’ve been in there for a week now, you know.”

  “It’s been the best week of my life,” Salom said slowly.

  Martha could hardly imagine a week with Hais being the best week of her life. “What about Hais?” she said.

  Salom’s face got ugly. “I’ll kill that keesh if he touches me!” she shouted. She got into an aggressive posture, with her hands semiclenched, claws at the ready.

  Martha thought to herself, Well, I guess that answers that question. “So come over, please?” she asked with a charming smile.

  Salom looked at her, then at Martha’s house.

  “Is there anyone over there now?” she asked.

  “No,” Martha replied.

  Salom looked deep in thought. “Ok, I’ll come over.”

  Salom then followed Martha over to her house. Salom was lifeless in her walk, and did not bother to cover her scarred crest with a hood or scarf, as she had always done before. When they arrived, Salom was keen to look around at first. She acted as if she believed someone was hiding somewhere there. Martha had decided to not bring up the prison at all. She tried to lift Salom’s spirits, but it was a difficult task. She could not talk about prison, or Jan, or Rebecca, so she talked about Griswolt, and then asked about Hais. “So how is Hais treating you?” Martha asked.

  Once again, Salom instantly changed. “Hais? I’ll kill that stick!”

  Well, I guess Hais is definitely off limits, Martha thought.

  Just then, Jan came home from school. He would come home from his new school about thirty minutes before his mother, so there was no more need for daycare. When the door opened upstairs, it made Salom jump, and she went into a stiff defensive posture, still sitting at the kitchen table.

  Jan came romping down the stairs as usual, but stopped cold when he caught sight of Salom’s intense stare focused directly on him. He walked down the last few steps more carefully. She looked scary. “Hello, Salom,” he said, testing her out.

  “What’s that doing here?” Salom shrieked, looking frightened and cornered.

  Jan stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Martha, who defensively moved in between him and the raving eyes of Salom.

  Martha was startled by Salom’s sudden change from bad to worse. I’ve never seen a look like that, she thought.

  “Salom!” Martha said with a raised voice, “You are not in prison anymore! You can relax.”

  Salom turned her attention to Martha, and with an incredulous look, said, “Relax? I’ll never relax again as long as I live! And it’s all because of those,” she spat, pointing past Martha at Jan.

  Jan was still standing there, at the entrance of the kitchen. He knew he was safe with his mom there, but wasn’t sure whether to continue through the kitchen or not.

  “Come on, Salom. It’s not the children’s fault. It’s the stupid laws we have,” Martha countered, trying to bring some logic to the situation.

  Salom took her gaze away from the direction of Jan, and worked on forming a smile on her face. She looked at Martha, and said, “You’re right. You were always right.” She kept the smile frozen on her face, and turning back to Jan, said in a syrupy sweet voice, “It’s all right, Jan. You surprised me, that’s all. Why don’t you come closer, so I can get a good look at you?”

  Jan gave Martha a skeptical look, and really did not want to get any closer to this crazy lady. He just wanted to get around her, so he could get to the stairs that went down to his bedroom.

  Martha was thinking about how to handle this, when Salom, whose eyes were riveted on Jan, said sweetly again, “Come here, boy. Have a seat on Auntie Salom’s lap, and let me take a good look at how big and handsome you are now.” Her voice became very high pitched at the end of her sentence, and was the definition of creepy.

  Martha was obviously concerned. She said, “Wait, Jan.” She looked at Salom and said, “Salom, I want to help you, but I don’t think you’re ready for children yet.”

  Salom looked pleadingly at Martha, “I just want to hold him, I just—”

  Martha interrupted, and said, “I don’t think Jan wants to do that right now, Salom. Why don’t we give him, and you, more time?”

  Salom’s face became contorted. She boiled at Martha with insane rage, and started sc
reaming, “You’re love-lovers! I know it!” Then she lowered her voice, and repeated, “I know it.” She glared at Jan. “I’ll report the both of you love-lovers. You’ll both fry!” Then she started laughing hysterically. “You’re going to fry!”

  Martha panicked, “We are not love-lovers anymore! Get out! Get the hell out of here!” She pounded her fists on the kitchen table in right front of Salom, and Salom cowered.

  “I said get out!” Martha roared as she grabbed Salom’s blouse by the shoulder and lifted her out of her chair. “I want you out now!”

  Salom gave a shriek as if she was injured. Martha, undeterred, escorted her up the stairs and out of the house.

  When Martha came back downstairs, she found that Jan was still standing in the kitchen. “Come over here with me,” she said to Jan, while motioning towards the table. When he came over they both had a seat and she said, “I want you to listen very carefully to me.”

  Jan recognized her grave expression, and was paying attention.

  “Jan, you must stay away from Salom,” Martha said, tapping her thick, light red polished fingerclaws on the table.

  “I don’t want to be around her anyway,” said Jan.

  “No, Jan. It’s more important than that. She can’t think right now. She may try to hurt you, so it’s important that you do not trust her. Don’t go into her house, even if she says she needs help. And lock the door behind you when you come home from school, all right?”

  Jan promised that he would. After that, he went downstairs to change out of his school clothes.

  Later, Martha told Griswolt about Salom, and Griswolt was concerned as well. They agreed that until Salom returned to an ordinary life, she was not to be trusted.

  Jan, on the other hand, was not very concerned. He did take precautions, and always locked the front door when he came home, but that was about all he needed to do. Over the next few weeks, he had other things on his mind. One of those things was a new kid that just moved back into the school district. He heard that his name was Barab, and that he picked on smaller kids when he was living here before. Barab was two years older, but had been held back in school twice. This new kid had been targeting Jan’s unusual crest. Today, while in the school’s cafeteria, he did it again. Barab laughed at Jan, calling him a clown-freak.

  Jan did not know how to take this new kid. He had become accustomed to receiving simple stares from other children and adults. Once Jan was with the same class for a while, the kids would stop paying attention to his crest. He could only hope that the new kid would stop, too. He noticed that Barab was really limping on his bad leg today.

  Just home from school, as Jan opened the refrigerator — he heard something in the hallway. He turned to see a shadow coming his way and his heart jumped and started racing at what he saw. It was Salom, coming into the kitchen. He looked for an escape and ran into the living room, shouting, “How did you get in here?”

  Salom followed him, smiling with incongruently hateful eyes. “I found Rebecca’s keee-eee-eey,” she answered in a screechy high voice. As soon as she said that, she got a forlorn look to her face, as if she had lost something. “Rebecca,” she said into the air. She looked at Jan, “Do you have Rebecca?”

  Jan had run to hide behind the sofa once again and yelled, “No! Rebecca went away! Go away!”

  Salom became more confused. She said, “Rebecca? Rebecca, come out of there!” Then she proceeded to pull the sofa away from the wall. Jan tried to get away, but she was able to grab him. Skinny as she was, she was still much bigger than Jan. She was holding him from behind, screaming, “Stand still!”

  Jan stomped on her right foot with his boot, and she yelped and loosened her grip. Jan ran through the kitchen and down the hallway to his parents’ bedroom.

  Salom immediately went after him, but stopped in the kitchen. “Here, this will do,” she said to herself as she took hold of a heavy meattenderizing hammer. “Rebecca! Come here, Mama will punish you if you don’t come —” she called out, now making her way down the hallway to the bedroom door that Jan had locked. She started banging on the lightweight door with the hammer.

  Jan was terrified, and had gone to hide under the bed. What am I going to do? he asked himself fearfully. A sword! He found a short sword of Griswolt’s sitting next to a metal stick. He grabbed the sword with both hands, the tip up in front of his eyes, and waited under the bed.

  Bang! Bang! Salom was using the big black hammer to break through the door. In short time, she had a big enough hole to reach in and unlock the door. Once in, she started looking for Jan. “Rebecca,” she said in a stern tone, come out right now!” Then her voice became eerily sweeter, “It’s time for your punishmeeeee-ee-eent.” She went around the room, checking the closet, and then she turned and looked at the bed. Salom got on her hands and knees, and saw Jan under the bed, sword in hand.

  Jan was alarmed when her eyes met his. He displayed the sword defiantly and yelled, “Stay away! You’re crazy! I’m not Rebecca — I’m Jan!”

  Salom crawled over to the foot of the bed, and swung the hammer at his feet, keeping away from the sword. Jan was kicking at her, and his bootlace became caught on the hammer. In a flash, she yanked hard on the hammer, pulling his foot out from under the bed. She grabbed his foot and pulled him out violently. Before Jan could react, Salom was able to jump on him, snatching the sword from him, then throwing it behind her.

  Jan fought, but she had him. He was struggling to get away. “Let me go!” he yelled, futily.

  Salom flipped him over on his back, and quickly sat on his chest. “Now I’ve got you, you bad girl,” she laughed with an evil grin and glistening eyes.

  Jan froze, eyes wide in terror as she lifted the hammer high, focusing on his forehead, and said, “You need a scar like mine to straighten you out,” and suddenly her expression changed. It changed to one of shock. The hammer fell dead out of her hands, bouncing off the floor right next to Jan’s head.

  It was then that Jan saw the sword tip extruding from her abdomen, and blood started spilling out from the spot. As she slumped, he saw Griswolt on his hands and knees, eyes wide open. His look was fierce. “Dad!” Jan yelled in wonder.

  “Fucking bitch!” Griswolt barked, and he got up and kicked her dying body off Jan. He turned his attention to his son. “Jan, are you all right? What did she do?”

  “I thought it was over, I was dead!” Jan got up and wrapped his arms around Griswolt tighter than he ever had before. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Griswolt was only now coming to grips, and the whole thing was dawning on him. He said, “It’s a miracle. My boss sent me home early today — I was the only one.”

  He paused, surveying the scene. “We need to call the police and report this,” Griswolt said. “Let’s get you out of here.” He looked down at Salom and shaking his head remarked, “We’re never going to get that blood stain out of the carpet.”

  They left the bedroom as it was, and Griswolt called the police.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cleansing Day

  “‘K ill them before they sin!’ That’s what my dad always

  says,” Rebecca proclaimed, as Jan and his parents were getting ready to attend “Cleansing Day”. She was getting along better with Hais now after accompanying him this

  past summer to the hognot matches. Martha had been complaining all morning about having to attend this monthly event. Apparently, the local NOV Temple had seven children ready for today’s burning. The higher the number they had, the more attendees, and thus higher collections.

  Because of WADD, (Witches Against Delinquent Daddies,) there was steady pressure on the various police districts to increase the numbers of child donations. A great competition had evolved between police departments to accomplish this mission. The numbers were published in the local news, thus calling to task the police departments that were lagging behind.

  After all, it was a noble cause. It prevented delinquents from living long en
ough to either kill, commit crime, or become fathers, (or mothers.) This stopped society from breeding more of the same self-destructive people. It was easy to prove in all measures that lives were saved because of this. WADD had been able to increase the child-donation numbers by encouraging random police checkpoints on the roads. Since arguments often arose when traveling, they were able to get parents to donate their children more readily in those situations. Numbers increased.

  Martha responded to Rebecca’s statement, “Well we know that your father loves to repeat temple dogma, but I still think it’s terrible.” She looked at Griswolt, hoping for him to give in, and not force her and Jan to attend the event this month. She could sometimes wear him out.

  Griswolt had been trying to ignore her, but instead said, “Why can’t you get it through your head that I must show up with my family, especially today? This is where I get to show that I am respected by my family. This makes me promotable in the department. You know what that means — more money and prestige for all of us.”

  “Its politics,” Jan chimed in, understanding his father’s need to do this. It was plain to see that Griswolt did not like going there anymore than they did. He was busy shining his new and bigger slick black dress shoes.

  Martha glanced at Jan with a curious look, and went back to buff polishing the scales on her arms and legs. She had her perfume on, and it made the event seem more familiar.

  “We’re going to be late to the temple today,” Rebecca said. “Dad is setting up tack traps this morning. He’s in a bad mood — that’s why I came over.” Tacks had been getting into her house lately. They were small, typically not harmful, but they hid, were dirty, and spread disease.

  “How is Hais doing these days?” Griswolt asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

  Rebecca looked away, “He came home from the bar with someone new last night.” She paused. “He still wants to kill Jan because of what happened to Mama. I try to talk to him but he won’t listen.”