Stan screamed and cried and even began to choke from the shock brought on by pain.
Father continued to beat his son. “You use your sister’s doll to play perverted games! And I just know that the pair of newlyweds saw what you were doing with that doll!”
Downstairs, Sherry observed from the hallway as Mother frantically scrubbed her doll, Betsy. “Is she really dirty, Mommy?”
“Oh yes!” affirmed Mother. “She’s very dirty!” Mother would see to it that every bit of filth and lust would be scrubbed off of that doll.
While being scrubbed, Betsy would occasionally glance at Sherry in hopes to communicate what a horrible ordeal she had endured.
Sherry could hear Father continuing to beat her brother Stan, upstairs, who choked and gasped for air while crying out. “Okay! Please! I’ve had enough! Please stop! I can’t breathe anymore!”
But the leather strap continued to snap. Little did Sherry know that Stan was now sitting on the ground and kicking his legs, partly in reaction to pain and partly as an involuntary response to prevent any further whipping.
Stan’s beating that fateful Saturday afternoon lasted for five minutes, long enough for Father to become exhausted and believe that he had beaten the sick and perverted nature out of his son. Immediately, Stan stood up to rush to the bathroom.
“Where are you going?” demanded Father.
Stan cried, “I’m having trouble breathing. Please let me splash cold water on my neck and face so I don’t pass out.”
“No!” declared Father. “You get in bed and lay there. While you feel like you are dying, you can think about what a dirty pervert you are. Think about what life would be like in jail if you were ever caught molesting the dead. No supper tonight, either!”
Yes, it was a harsh punishment. But that’s what Stan deserved for kidnapping Betsy, burying her in the woods, and repeatedly unearthing her to rape her like a corpse that could not cry out.
Too bad the beating didn’t stick with Stan. Despite what Father may have believed, it didn’t change him. Oh, Stan never asked to ride his bicycle again. He wouldn’t dare. And he didn’t return to the forest preserve to play perverted games with his sister’s dolls. Still, the morbid fetishes remained with Stan throughout high school and after graduation.
***
It was expected—actually demanded—of Stan to join the Army after high school. Father believed that Stan needed a good drill sergeant to finally straighten out and make a man out of him. You see, Stan was mostly quiet in high school, and didn't make many friends. He didn't play sports and didn't pull the best grades. And there were still those concerns of Stan being a morbid pervert. Aside from that, Stan appeared to have no aspirations of doing much of anything after graduating except continuing to work at the dime store. He was nearly nineteen years upon graduating high school. What's more? It was only natural to join the military with talks of drafts for the Vietnam War.
Father took Stan to an armed forces recruiter one Monday morning.
"Yes! I do believe we can make a man out of your son!" declared the recruiter with a menacing look. "What do you say, boy?" he asked Stan. "Are you ready to be a man?"
Stan shrugged his shoulders, "Sure, I guess so..."
"You guess so?" challenged the recruiter with a confounded look. "Well that's one thing we're going to fix for you, boy. We're going to take the guess work out of everything." Then he looked at Father. "We can take him right now if you want. We've got a truck load of 'em heading out to boot camp just like your son, all on their way to be turned into men and soldiers."
"It sounds like a great idea to me." agreed Father. "You can take him."
Stan was in shock. He believed that he would only visit the armed forces recruiter to talk about joining. He didn't think he'd be shipped off to boot camp on that very day.
And when he finally arrived, there stood a mean drill sergeant who yelled at Stan and scolded him for being late. "Now drop and give me twenty!" ordered the drill sergeant.
"Yes, Sir!" answered Stan who dropped to the ground and struggled with all his might after the third push up.
"What, are you some kind of girl?" asked the mean drill sergeant. "You can't even do pushups?"
Stan huffed and puffed with beads of sweat pouring down his face. You see, Stan wasn't exactly fit to do strenuous activity. And this disgusted the drill sergeant all the more.
Stan's time in the military lasted all but three weeks. He couldn't even make it through boot camp. Back in those days, cadets were severely beaten and punished for being unable to fulfil the drills and exercises. And that's what happened to poor Stan. They beat the shit out of him, beat him bloody and unconscious. They beat him so bad, in fact, that he was unconscious for three days due a concussion. It was a miracle that Stan didn't die.
But the Army didn't feel the least bit sorry for Stan. Again, this was olden times and things were handled differently. As far as the Army was concerned, Stan failed boot camp and was dishonorably discharged.
Back at home, Mr. Green no longer needed Stan at his dime store. He found a replacement, a studious sophomore boy in high school who was working quite well. Fortunately for Stan, he quickly found an alternative. He managed to land a full time job at the local Texaco gas station as a pump and lube attendant. Stan was certainly knowledgeable on filling gas tanks. As for changing oil, Stan had done it for Father on a few occasions which made him qualified enough to work at Texaco.
It wasn't such a bad job. It paid fairly decent and enabled Stan to pay for Father's mandatory rent for living at home. It also enabled Stan to purchase his own car, a black 1959 Chevy Impala. Through his new network of coworkers and their friends, Stan landed a nice deal for the used car. So he no longer needed to ask Mom and Dad to use theirs. How's that for becoming a man?
Oh, but things would get even better for Stan once summer ended, right around the time when his yearly morbid fetishes began to stir. It was on Thursday, September 24th, 1964 when Stan sat in the family room with Mother, Father and his kid sister Sherry. They watched the very, first episode of The Munsters. And that's when Stan fell terribly in love with the wife, Lily Munster. You've seen her before, I’m sure; long, raven-black hair with a pale face and red lipstick—at least this was seen when the episodes were finally colorized. But viewers in those days swore that they could see the full colored morbid beauty of Lily Munster through the black and white TV screen. But Stan saw so much more than her morbid beauty. For Stan, Lily Munster was the woman he had been waiting for all his life. So haunted-looking, she was the sort of woman he could bury in a grave and later unearth for an evening of romance.
Poor Lily Munster...
“So is this how things got even better for Stan?”—you might ask? “He saw his first episode of The Munsters and fell in love with Lily Munster?”
No, that’s not what happened. It only served as a precursor, and Stan would soon forget about Lily Munster. You see, the very next day, around 4:30 PM, a car pulled into the Texaco gas station—a 1962 Dodge Belvidere—with Stan's high school classmate, Fredrick, driving. In the passenger seat was Fredrick's girlfriend, Donna—the same Donna who was discussed at the beginning of the story. For all practical purposes, she was already grown up—a young woman.
Stan had to take a deep breath to pull himself out of disbelief. You see, this was beautiful Donna; Spanish with long, raven black hair, dark Spanish eyes, and fair skin. She was nearly a dead-ringer for Lily Munster! He remembered seeing Donna throughout high school. Why hadn't he noticed her before? Stan was in so much of a trance that moment that he initially walked up to the passenger side.
Donna could see the love in Stan's eyes. But she had Fredrick, now a soldier who had successfully graduated boot camp and was waiting to hear word of when he would be deployed for the Vietnam War.
"Over here Stan!" ordered Fredrick from the driver seat.
"Oops, sorry!" apologized Stan. "I guess it's been a long day."
For some stra
nge reason, Donna momentarily felt sad.
"So how have you been, Fredrick?" nervously asked Stan while trying to make small talk.
"Not too bad." answered Fredrick. "And you?" But before Stan could answer, Fredrick was sure to jab the knife in. "I hear you didn't make it in boot camp. Yeah it's rough, ain't it?"
Stan sighed, "Yeah..."
"I hear you were dishonorably discharged." continued Fredrick.
Donna sadly called out, "Fredrick, that's not nice."
But Fredrick ignored his girlfriend. He was a soldier, and no girl was going to dictate what was nice. "I heard they beat shit of you."
Stan now felt about two-feet tall. "Yeah, I was unconscious for a few days..."
"Sorry to hear that." finalized Fredrick before ordering, "Fill it up with five dollars regular."
"You've got it." acknowledged Stan who walked over to the gas pump. Normally he would ask the customer if he should check under the hood. But with as humiliated as he felt, Stan wanted Fredrick to be gone as soon as possible. But not Donna! How Stan wished that Donna would have voiced her disgust in the way Fredrick had treated Stan, and then exit his vehicle to be with Stan for the remainder of the evening. Stan did clean the windshield while the gas pumped. For a split second he managed to glance in towards the passenger seat at Donna who returned a micro-second sad look which communicated how sorry she was.
"Okay, that will be fiver dollars." announced Stan after hanging up the gas pump.
Fredrick handed a five dollar bill and a single out the window. "Keep the change." Then he drove off with beautiful Donna in the passenger seat.
***
It had been over two years since Stan paid a visit to the Berry Bush Forest Preserve. After that severe beating from Father on that fateful Saturday, Stan avoiding the place mostly out of fear that Father would be lurking. But Stan was older now. He worked, paid rent, and had his own vehicle. There was no reason why he couldn't visit the old burial spot on a Friday night after work which just so happened to be the same Friday when Fredrick visited the gas station with beautiful Donna sitting in the passenger seat.
It was late afternoon, actually nearing twilight, as Stan pulled into a parking spot at Berry Bush Forest Preserve. He put the transmission in park and turned off the engine. Located a few spots away was a vehicle with a couple that were necking.
"Is this the new lover's lane?" Stan thought to himself.
The couple briefly stopped with their passionate necking—young kids still in high school—and observed Stan. It was no one they recognized, so they resumed making out.
Stan walked the main trail for some minutes until reaching that place where he would deviate into the forest preserve. From there he continued until reaching the tree where he used to play his morbid game of unearthing Father's metal toolbox with terrified doll laying inside. With over two years passed and extreme weather conditions, evidence of a hole once being there was gone.
Stan was older now, and didn't really feel like playing with dolls. But how he needed an outlet to fulfil his morbid fetishes. He gazed off into the distance of the forest while briefly pondering for a moment. It was then that his attention was drawn to a large, old tree some distance off in the forest. There were actually two of them towering over the forest side-by side, but it was the one on the left that really caught Stan’s attention. It was clearly an old tree that had to be at least three to four hundred years old.
But why would an old tree catch Stan's attention?
It was because the tree exhibited the shape of a young woman; the curvaceous sort of woman... perhaps one that has long, raven, black hair with dark, Spanish eyes and fair skin... perhaps someone, exactly, like Donna. Has the reader ever taken notice of a very, old tree? It's beautiful to say the least. But pay attention to the outer surface and how the bark begins to build up curvy, irregular designs. It might remind you of a curvaceous woman. But would you fall in love with the tree in a way that Stan was beginning to do? Stan was spellbound and captivated. The more he looked at the tree, the more it resembled—perhaps—a wooden sculpture of the sort of woman he had been waiting for his entire life; someone like Donna.
Stan left his once-upon-a-time burial place of the doll, and linked back to the main trail. He walked and walked for over a hundred feet until at a location where he felt he could deviate off the trail and reach the tree. Oh, but it was no easy task. It required a bit of bushwhacking and then climbing down a ravine. When finally at the bottom, Stan approached the old tree which strongly resembled Donna.
Stan reached out and touched the sides of the old, curvy trunk as-if he were gently caressing Donna's hips. If Stan didn't know any better, there was something living in the tree—a spirit or some sort of ghost. And in that moment, Stan was able to use his morbid fetishes and fantasize of bringing to life whatever ghost or spirit was in that tree. After all, Stan had been fascinated for some years of the notion of raising the dead.
It was almost as-if Stan were having a conversation with the tree which was now the clear manifestation of something that resembled Donna.
"What's wrong? What's troubling you?" she asked.
"I don't know..." answered Stan.
"Of course you do." she insisted. "You just haven't taken the time to look deeper into what is happening. Now what happened? What brought your here?"
With hands still on the hips of the curvaceous woman before him, Stan danced with the spirit in the forest. "I guess I saw Donna… I saw you…" began Stan. "I saw you sitting in Fredrick's car, and could have sworn that there was some chemistry between us. It's almost like you are supposed to be mine and not with Fredrick."
"Well Donna is yours." reassured the spirit. "And she's mine as well. That’s why she resembles me. You see, I am the spirit mother of Donna, the young woman who you are in love with. And to be in love with Donna means that you are in love with me as well. Together we form a nice trio. You should bring Donna here to see me, and we can finally be one."
"How am I going to do that?" challenged Stan. "She thinks she belongs to Fredrick."
"Fredrick?" scoffed the spirit. "He's going off to war pretty soon. Donna will be all alone, and a lot can happen in a few years. You will have plenty of time to change her mind for us."
"Yeah? You think?" questioned Stan.
"Oh, come-on!" insisted the spirit. “I'm her spirit mother. I know Donna, and I know how things will unfold for her. Just wait until Fredrick goes off to war. Then start working on making her yours."
***
Two Friday’s later, Stan had the evening off from the gas station with nothing to do. He decided to treat himself to a movie.—Mary Poppins of all things! While waiting in line at the concession stand for popcorn, Stan was surprised to see Donna walk over with her friend, Barbara.
"Hi Donna!" excitedly greeted Stan. "What are you doing here?"
"Probably the same thing you are doing." teased Donna. "Waiting in line for popcorn and then going to see the movie."
Barbara stood nearby and shook her head in disbelief while smiling.
Stan blushed, "Oh, yeah... I guess that was a silly question." Then he asked, "Where's Fredrick?"
"You didn't hear?" asked Donna. "They shipped him off to duty. He'll be gone for at least a couple of years."
Stan wasn't sure how to react or what to say. "Oh, I bet you're really worried, aren't you?"
"I try not to think about anything." carefully answered Donna. "I just look forward to him coming home. He said he'd write me whenever he can."
"I'm sure everything will be fine." reassured Stan. Feeling it was best to quickly change the direction of the conversation, he turned his attention to Donna’s friend. “I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Barbara..." she answered.
“Nice to meet you, Barbara.” added Stan. Then he asked both Donna and Barbara, "And what movie are you girls going to see tonight?"
"Mary Poppins..." answered Donna.
"You don't say!" exclaime
d Stan. "So am I!"
Donna laughed, "Really? You don't seem like the sort of guy who would be into Mary Poppins!"
"I heard it was a good movie." explained Stan.
"It's a musical." added Barbara. "Guys aren't really into those."
The three continued to inch there way forward in line and were now close to the concession stand. Stan suddenly felt like this was his only opportunity to make a move on Donna. "Hey..." he began. "You girls don't mind if I sit with you, do you?"
Donna and Barbara shrugged their shoulders.
Donna answered, "Sure, why not?" Oh, but of course she wouldn't even think of allowing another man to court her. As far as Donna was concerned, Fredrick would marry her once returning from war. Sitting next to Stan at the movie theater was simply that and nothing more.
Stan was next in line. "Yeah, I'll have a large popcorn with extra butter and a Coke. And give me two more of the same for both of these girls, here."
"Wow!" exclaimed Barbara.
"Wow!" that was really nice of you, Stan." further exclaimed Donna. "You are a really nice guy.”
In the movie theater, Stan sat right next to Donna. In that two-and-a-half hours, Stan couldn’t help but savor every moment of smelling Donna’s nearby hair. You see, Donna had long hair which draped over the seat and even brushed across Stan’s shoulder on occasion. Of course he didn’t mind. And if Stan didn’t know any better, Donna seemed to really enjoy sitting next to him. And she was really impressed when Stan shared the rest of his popcorn with her after she had eaten her own. It almost felt like Stan and Donna were out on a date that night.
It felt so much like a date, in fact, that Stan actually visited Donna later that night, long after the world had gone to bed. He learned of Donna's address some hours before while giving Donna and her friend, Barbara, a ride home from the movie theater. The two had walked to the theater that Friday. You see, Donna and Barbara had yet to start driving. I suppose both women belonged to old fashioned families in which it wasn't necessary for women to drive. This was common in olden times. But this seemingly unfair custom helped Stan feel all the more like he were on a date with beautiful Donna. In the parking lot of the theater she seemed to naturally sit in the passenger seat, as-if she were Stan's girlfriend. Barbara sat in the backseat—three wheeling... poor Barbara.
The Dead Forest Page 3