When The Butterflies Come

by Rosemary Ness Bitner

  There was no body, no witness, just the circumstantial evidence of the shock of Marty’s hair. The thought occurred to Susan that the perpetrator could possibly be someone other than David. She doubted that, but her administrator’s sense of getting things right told her she needed to take steps to be sure.

  David was in his office feeling jovial. He’d just settled his litigation with Bob and was contemplating a long trip to the Caribbean to relax. There were brochures of vacation spots on his desk when Susan walked in. She sensed he was off guard.

  “David, I’m trying to create an abstract painting of Marty and I need some help to make her image realistic. Do you remember ever seeing her in blue shorts or do you remember seeing her in red shorts?” The request seemed perfectly straightforward and with no hidden purpose. Susan could have been an actress.

  “Blue shorts. I don’t recall her ever wearing reds,” David said before returning to his brochures.

  That clinched it for Susan. Marty only wore shorts on warm weekends. She never wore shorts to the office. She always wore business suits or skirts to the office and company functions. The only way David could have seen Marty in shorts was if he’d been to her home or if she’d gone to David’s for some nefarious purpose without mentioning it to her. Marty went missing over a weekend. Probably she was with David while wearing shorts. The reason didn’t matter.

  It didn’t take long for Susan to get her first bit of proof that David was the culprit. After about five minutes, he gave her door his gentle knock before he entered. She was ready for him, working on an acrylic painting of Marty right there in her office. Her inquiry seemed plausible. Still, David continued to blunder into her trap. “You know, Susan, come to think of it, I don’t think I ever saw Marty in a pair of shorts, only in a skirt. I must have been thinking of her wearing a blue skirt. I hope that helps you some.” David turned and left. Susan watched his movement closely. He walked more deliberate than usual, like he was a child trying to distance himself from her before he broke into a full run.

  She had her confirmation with that well-thought-out denial, much more deliberate than his off-the-cuff comment when he was caught off guard. Susan got what she wanted. It was evidence enough for her if not for the police, but the police weren’t going to know anything about her plans for David.

  David sought to slip away from Susan’s trap, as if he didn’t know he was already snared and she couldn’t see he was rattled by his blundering revelation. She watched him tiptoe from her office like a cat stares after a nervous mouse. It was too late for the little coward David. He didn’t fool Susan for a second. Her maternal instincts were triggered and now they brought him sharply into focus. She planned her next move carefully.

  Days elapsed after Susan’s inquiry about Marty’s shorts. David assumed it was all about nothing, but it nagged his conscience that he could be so forgetful and glib. Susan wasn’t stupid, but she was getting older. He believed he was in the clear. He rationalized Susan had no reason to suspect anything. He’d gotten away with avenging Bob’s rejection and screwing Bob out of the companies. He’d avenged his miserable childhood by murdering his half-sister. He believed all was well in his world.

  It was getting on toward dusk. It was late summer and a circus show was moving into town; the downtown would become a bedlam of traffic if he stayed much longer. He went to get his car from the garage. It was his oldest Cadillac, the beat-up car from hell that he used to intimidate other drivers. As he approached his car, he saw the strangest thing. Someone had attached a chain fall to the steel beam above the vehicle, the chain hanging down from a block pulley suspended from the beam. There was a stepladder off to the side of his car. He stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. He couldn’t imagine why someone from the garage was working on something so late in the day, nor could he imagine what it was. As he began to gain a dim awareness that something was amiss, he received a conk on the back of his head from a pipe wrench and fell to the ground unconscious.

  Susan remembered what Muscle told her, that even a child could lift a mature bull with the chain fall apparatus. She was about to find out. She wrapped a rope around David’s waist several times and knotted it, attached the hook at the chain’s end to his makeshift rope belt, and then hoisted him into the trunk of his car. She climbed on her stepladder, removed the block pulley and chain, took David’s car keys from his pocket, placed the chain fall apparatus and the stepladder into the trunk with David, and drove away. This would be her last day of babysitting.

  Susan drove two hours south of Plaintown to the Shadow Mountain range. It was late and the dirt bikers who rode the trails were gone, probably off to the circus show. A logging road she’d scouted days before took her to an isolated clearing crossed with game trails, but no biker trails. She stopped on a high bluff above the Blue River, listening to the peaceful sounds of the river coursing its white ripples over the gentle rapids below. Her mood was in tune with the soothing sounds of the river on that warm midsummer evening. She breathed a sigh of relief as she worked with a calm deliberation, using the full moon’s natural light. She’d brought a flashlight, but hesitated to use it. Being seen by campers on the other side of the river or by ranch hands from the bunkhouse far below was not something she wanted.

  She used a convenient tree to rig her chain fall and swing David out of the trunk. He was a little groggy, so she conked him a second time. He was out again. After Susan finished arranging his body, she took her chain fall down and returned it to the car’s trunk, along with her stepladder. When she had everything prepared for David, she poured some water on his face. He revived to discover his mouth was covered with duct tape. He was also naked. His arms and legs were spread out and staked down tightly against the ground. He couldn’t move an inch, and Susan had placed large rocks upon and around his torso so he couldn’t do more than breathe. His legs and arms were tied taut to nearby trees, so that if by some miracle he could work loose a leg or arm from a staked-down fastener, he wouldn’t be able to use that limb to reach any other limb. Susan thought of everything. She always was a thorough administrator. It was time to say her good-byes.

  “I’ve placed you near an ant hill, David. The big red ones like the ones you used to torture as a child. Also, I selected a spot above the river for you. You have some good neighbors here. There’s a yellow jacket nest under a nearby log, and from this high vantage point crows and ravens often sit to watch the river far below. The sun will be up in about seven hours, David. I’ve made sure you’ll have some visitors. I’ve poured some honey on your penis. You like having your little pee-pee played with, don’t you? I’ve also dabbed some honey in your hair. That’s to remind you of Marty’s hair. I’m sure you remember the patch of her hair you cut from her scalp, don’t you?”

  David shook his head slightly.

  “That doesn’t cut it, David. There’s only one way out of this for you. If you admit you killed her, I’ll get you out of this and take you to the police. Okay?”

  David nodded. Susan opened the duct tape for him to speak, telling him that if he screamed she’d bash his face with a pipe wrench. He didn’t scream. He was terrified.

  “Answer me, David. How did you kill her?’

  “I drugged her. Then I hoisted her in my barn and I sacrificed her to God. She was a sinner, Susan. You know that. Let me go. I’ll give you all my money, my father’s diamonds. You can have the business, everything. Just name your price.”

  “Thank you for that, David,” she said as she reapplied the duct tape. She now knew for sure she was not making a mistake. David whined and grunted as befitting a man in dire mortal straits. Susan spoke to him in a compassionate voice as she would to a baby she was about to put to sleep for the last time.

  “Your father, your mother, and I all tried very hard to bring you up properly, but you failed all of us. You’ve failed your god as well as all of his creatures. I’ve watched you from the time you were a little boy pulling wings from flies, pulling legs from ants. How
do you think those insects felt? How do you think Bob felt when you took his career from him? How do you think Marty felt when you hung her up and butchered her?”

  David puffed his chest out to push off the pile of rocks, but they were big flat ones and he had no success. He twisted his torso as best he could, but there was nothing gained from that effort either. He glowered at Susan with hate-filled eyes. If there were such a thing as a devil, she saw it in those eyes.

  “I doubt if you’ve ever considered anyone’s feelings your entire life. You didn’t learn your behavior, David. It’s just something you were born with. You’re not like your father. He was good at heart, just trapped in a marriage by your religion to a woman he didn’t love. He never sought to hurt others or be evil for his enjoyment as you did. You’re soon going to learn how other people felt when you hurt them without caring. When these ants begin eating your balls, and when they start digging into your scalp and into your eyes, you’ll know what it’s like to get hurt by someone who just doesn’t care. There’s no other way to teach you. This is your final lesson. I’m resigning as your babysitter.”

  Susan ignored David’s insistent grunts. He was not going to get his way this night.

  “When the sun comes up, the hornets will smell the honey and they’ll also come to visit you, David. The crows eat your eyes. You probably didn’t know they did that, did you? You don’t want to live without being able to see, do you? You’re not answering me, David, just nodding. Well, your sitter knows what’s best for you. You won’t need to live without your sight. Okay then, I guess we have nothing more to discuss. Be a good little boy tonight and remember to say your prayers. Pray to God that he takes you into his bosom and that you’ve made some good marks in your Book of Life. Good night, baby David. Sleep well, you worthless sack of shit.”

  Having said her final good-bye to her one-time charge and lover’s son, Susan spit in his face and then left and drove back to Plaintown. She’d finally realized one of her long-sought dreams, a life free of David.

  Those were the last human sounds David heard. Two Clark’s nutcrackers perched in the branches above him took in the scene, waiting for their chance at a meal. As their good fortunes would have it, they beat the crows to David’s eyes. As he lay there, he could already feel little bites pinching flesh from his gonads. The ants didn’t wait for morning.

  David’s car was found in the parking garage in the exact same spot where he’d parked it. There were no fingerprints on the car, no chain fall, no stepladder, and no sign of foul play. Susan was forever thorough. David’s bones were discovered by a forest ranger on horseback about seven weeks later. The horse was standing off from the edge of the scattered remains when it stopped to evacuate itself; otherwise, the ranger might have ridden past the site without noticing anything. As he took in the widely scattered bones, he realized they were possibly human. There was a lone field mouse gnawing upon one of the bones, drawing its ration of calcium. There was no other sign of life at the site. David’s carcass was picked clean of all flesh and tissues; coyotes or possibly bears or mountain lions had scattered the bones, most cracked with their marrow removed. Coyotes likely gleaned the carcass.

  There were ropes tied to the trees surrounding the site. Ground stakes indicated it was a homicide and a terrible agonizing death for the victim. How David’s body ended up on that bluff above the Platte baffled the authorities, and the case remains unsolved to this day. Susan dutifully made her calls to his home that next day when he didn’t arrive at the office. A few days later, she helped his wife file a missing person report. Some teeth from a jaw fragment sufficed to identify the body. What bones could be gathered were placed into a wooden box and given to his widow. She took them for burial in Israel. No obituary of David’s death was ever published.

  ANCIENT MARKINGS

  Bob and Barbara took a trip back to Milltown to visit his mother. Estella was old now but she bore the ravages of age well. She walked with a cane and her eyesight was dimmed, but her feisty nature and her combativeness never yielded to the march of time. Her old eyes beamed at seeing Bob with Barbara, and she greeted the happy couple with forceful lingering hugs. When Estella saw Barbara, she knew Bob and this woman would soon marry. Mothers had a way of knowing those things. She was happy for her son and bluntly told him so.

  “I’m glad you are finally going to get your life straightened out,” she remarked, as if everything adverse that ever happened in Bob’s life was his fault alone. After lunch, she got down to mother’s business. There were questions she had to ask, and answers to questions all mothers must learn.

  “You don’t look like an Indian. Bob said you were an Indian. You’re an awful pretty woman for an Indian. She’s one of the prettiest women I’ve ever seen, Bob. Lordy, Lordy.”

  “I am an Indian. I know the Indian ways and I believe in myself as one of the Great Spirit’s creations and a child of Mother Earth. My father is a tribal chief, but my mother was actually a Lebanese Christian woman. She was a small-boned Arab. I believe it was the will of the Great Spirit that they met, and by his will he brought me into this world through them.”

  “How on Earth did an American Indian get himself married to a Lebanese? She was part Arab you said?”

  “Dad was a United States Marine, ma’am. He was stationed in Lebanon for a while. They fell in love. I am part of them both. Mother died seven years ago from cancer. Mother was all Arab, not part Arab.”

  “That’s a lovely pin you’re wearing, Barbara. Where on Earth did you find that?”

  “Oh, thank you, Estella. That’s my butterfly pin. It’s a fond reminder of a woman I used to work for before Bob and I went into business together. She had a daughter who died. It was originally a gift from her daughter to her. Before she passed away, she gave the pin to me. She told me I was like a second daughter to her and she wanted me to wear it in memory of her and her daughter.”

  “Oh, you knew her daughter too, did you? They must have been nice people.” Estella knew of whom Barbara spoke, but she didn’t let on. Bob had told her of his intentions toward Marty years before.

  “Yes. For a while at the UGGA, all three of us worked together.”

  “I see. Well, that gift was very thoughtful of her. And you two are getting married?”

  “Yes,” Barbara confirmed what Estella suspected.

  “And I take it that you love my son and you will be a good woman to him. You’re not one to run around with other men or drink and gamble or smoke. You’re not one of those kinds of girls, are you?

  “Yes and no, ma’am.”

  “Well, which is it?”

  “Yes, Estella. I love Bob. I love him deeply. I promise you I will be good to him. And no, Estella, I’m not a bad woman. I’m a good one. Bob is getting a good woman.”

  “I see. And the children, if you have them? How will you raise them?”

  “We’ll raise them as Reformed Jews with Christian and Indian Spirits blended in, ma’am. You see, we don’t actually believe God would choose one people over another, not the God we embrace. We think that’s a false message used to help an exclusive clique exclude others who need to believe in something and be led around by the nose. We think it limits those who take the message literally and prevents them from open friendships and understandings with others, like eating the same bowl of mush day in and day out.”

  “But without religious groupings amongst peoples, you’ll have anarchy!”

  “Or acceptance that we are all God’s children, all equal in his eyes.” Barbara was quick of mind and tongue. “The priests and rabbis will just have to catch up with us, Estella. The world is always changing, and peoples’ understandings are changing with it.”

  Estella smiled. Barbara had a ring of truth and confidence about her. Estella felt the same inner happiness she last knew when she was with Paul before he left for the Russian front.

  “Well, you’re both old enough to do what you want, with or without my blessings, but you have my blessi
ngs and best wishes to you both.”

  After visiting Estella, Bob and Barbara walked the old path down to the dam on Cedar Creek. They sat together on the cement abutment that adjoined the spillway. It was a perfect day for an afternoon outdoors. They looked out over the dam and watched two wood ducks diving upside down in the water, their tail feathers and wings splashing to rid their down of fleas and lice. Their antics made Barbara laugh. Her laugh was mirthful, and pleasing to Bob. “Silly ducks,” she said. As they sat looking out over the waters and up the far reaches of the creek to where it disappeared from view under the overhang of pines and its upstream bend, a pair of coupled dragonflies flew right in front of them and paused in midair. The giant insects were suspended just three feet before their eyes, absorbed in their task of mating.

  Barbara looked at Bob and smiled. “The dragonflies are telling us something.” Then she leaned against him and gave Bob a soft, loving kiss on his lips.

  “Is this your Great Spirit speaking to us through his messengers?” Big Horse teased Little Sparrow.

  “It must be so.” Little Sparrow nodded and smiled. She looked deeply into Bob’s eyes and they both understood their futures belonged together.