Detached: Book 1 of the Fleischer Series

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Detached: Book 1 of the Fleischer Series Page 18

by Wendi Starusnak


  My mother just continued to sit there, rocking and muttering. “Hey, why don't you give me a hand here instead of just sitting there? Mom? This is your fault too, you know. You weren't even half this upset when Eric was murdered by Dad and you know that's what happened.” No response. Just more of the rocking and the muttering. No worries. This part of the deed was almost complete. I didn't bother cleaning the butcher knife just yet. I brought that with me downstairs.

  Julie took over from there. She told me I had done well and to just have a seat at the stairs in case anyone tried to come down. What a lifesaver she had turned out to be after all. Yes, it felt a little nuts that my doll was talking to me and doing my dirty work for me, but I was well past caring about that by this point. She had helped relieve a huge amount of stress and pain and suffering from my life and I just felt exhausted and thankful for her help.

  It seemed like forever until Julie was done butchering Dad's body, but finally she was. I took the bones and scraps that couldn't be used out to the pigs' trowel, hoping they made every nasty piece disappear.

  Whew! I finally got rid of that beast for Emily! Well actually she had done it all by herself, just with a lot of urging from me. Now maybe things could start to go the way that they should around this place. Now I had to just come up with a story to tell Emily’s brother and sister when they returned from town. Also, it would have to be a story that we could tell anyone that came nosing around.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  It was quite a while before Johnny and Caroline came back home from bringing the produce into town to sell. That seemed to make us a little more money than just selling it roadside in our own yard and had been one of my ideas actually. Dad had finally listened and sent Johnny in his truck with Caroline to try the idea out and see if it really worked. He would never find out the answer, but it would be useful for the rest of us to know for the future.

  I had mom seated and positioned the best that I could get her in her chair at the table and dinner was almost finished. Johnny looked around seeming confused and then asked, “Where's Dad? I wanted to show him this catfish I bought at the fish market.”

  I took him aside where Mom and Caroline wouldn't hear and told him, “He left us Johnny. Just told Mom he was done with us. Hopped in the driver's side of some red head's truck and just sped off.”

  I could see him trying to let that news sink in. “But that makes no sense.”

  “Well, that's what happened. Mom's not handling it that well, so try to keep quiet about it.” And then louder so that I could be sure everyone would hear, “I made dinner. Something Dad took out this morning. It should be done.”

  I dished Johnny's bowl and then Caroline's. Then I got Mom's. I was too worn out to be hungry. I took a seat next to Mom and tucked a napkin into her shirt. “Are you going to feed yourself or do I need to do it?” Johnny and Caroline both looked at me in surprise, but kept quiet. There was no answer from our mother. So I picked up the spoon and started to feed her some of the broth from the stew.

  She didn't swallow and just let it spill back out of her loose mouth. I let Julie slap her across the face. Not hard, just enough to send a message to wherever she was at in her head. “You have to eat Mother.” As I fished some more broth from the bowl, I noticed a big finger hiding in among the vegetables. It looked like a pointer finger. Oops, hopefully I didn't overlook too much of that. The next spoonful she swallowed. Good. She did the same with most of the rest of the bowl.

  When everyone had finished their suppers and taken their bowls to the sink I asked, “Did I do an alright job with making dinner?”

  “That was good,” said Caroline, my sweet little sister.

  “Good. Don't ever forget what Dad always tells us: don't get too attached...”

  Johnny looked directly at me as he finished my sentence for me, “…because it might be supper.”

  There was a lot to figure out and take care of if Emily and her brother and sister were going to make it look like they weren’t on their own in this house. Which, even though their mother was there in body, her mind had certainly taken off to someplace far away.

  Emily and Caroline would also have to keep up with their school work. Johnny was old enough now not to have to do the school work any longer. One of them would have to figure out how to do the paperwork for The State.

  They would also have to figure out what bills there were and how to pay them. There was a lot, but I knew they would be able to handle it. They had handled far worse when their father was alive.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Wendi Starusnak is currently living her own version of Happily Ever After in Phoenix, New York with her husband, her children, her mother-in-law, and their little dog that thinks he’s a person. She began writing as a small child and whenever the question of what she wanted to be when she grew up was asked, she responded with, “a published author”. She’s hoping the fact that you’re reading this now doesn’t mean that she has actually grown up, only that her dreams have become a reality.

  HOW TO CONNECT

  www.facebook.com/AuthorWendiStarusnak

  www.willowtree.b-town.us

  On Twitter as Wendi Starusnak

 

 

 


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