by Kurth Warren
opposite end from me. His wife, with long dark hair, sat to my left. The two kids, a boy and a girl, sat to my right. They looked like they might be nearly ten years old or so. The meal started off pretty good. Then the phone rang.
The boy started telling me about his day when his mother got up to answer the phone in the kitchen. ‘My sis and I have a secret fort out in the woods. Pa won’t let us play out there at night, but you can follow our tracks well enough in the moonlight, to find it.’
‘Yeah, you can stay the night there if you want to.’ The girl said with enthusiasm as she sat up straight. ‘Pa doesn’t let strangers stay in the house often, but our fort is as good as any other my brother says so.’ She said as she ate.
‘Now sis, the young man doesn’t want to spend the night in you two’s fort. He’s got pressing business in Courserbanks to tend to.’ Her father said. ‘So just finish yer supper and then get ready for bed. Besides, it’s gonna snow tonight so yer tracks won’t be so easy to foller if the moon isn’t out.’
She nodded at her dad as though she understood him. They continued to eat their supper when the silence was broken.
‘You Son-of-a-bitch! Get in her right now!’ She sounded pissed.
‘Damn it woman.’ He said as he stood and went into the kitchen.
They argued for a few seconds before the boy told me that they fight all the time. ‘I wish that they wouldn’t fight so much. Ma usually gets hit pretty well for talkin to pa that a way.’
‘Shut up bubba, he’s gonna hear you and come after you next.’ She said quietly. The two of them looked towards the kitchen. ‘Maybe we should show him were our fort is. It’s gonna get bad tonight.’
I looked at the two kids and smiled. ‘Everything will be ok, you’ll see.’ I said as I looked towards the kitchen. ‘I don’t think your Pa will do anything while I’m here.’
‘You Son-of-a-bitch!’ Ma yelled. ‘How could you?’
‘I don’t know what the hell yer talkin about’ Pa replied.
‘The hell you don’t. That was Carla on the phone. She said she saw you with that tramp again today. You promised me that you broke it off.’
‘That Carla is a lying bitch…’
I stood from the table and began to approach the kitchen.
‘Come on sis, let’s head to the fort.’ He said as he reached for her. ‘Mr. you can come too, things are fixing to get ugly.’ He said as he grabbed his sister’s hand and headed for their coats.
The yelling was getting serious in the kitchen. I began walking to the kitchen. My head began to hurt again. This time the pain got real bad. I stopped at the entrance to the kitchen and leaned against the wall. Things began to get fuzzy, and then I heard ‘No…’
I remember when my parents used to fight. My father was cheating on my mother too, as I recall. I hated him so much for hurting her. I hated him so much, that I wished I had killed him. The pain started to fade and then I saw Ma fall to the floor. She looked so beautiful. Her hair long and flowing as she sat on the floor crying. She looked so much like my mother. So innocent. My head stopped hurting and my heart started pounding. I remember my mother sitting like that on the floor crying. I got madder than fuck. I saw Pa raise his hand to hit her again. I saw my mother on the floor cringing from my father. The scene played out like in my memories. Then I only stood there, my head hurting. Now, my head didn’t hurt. I knew what I had to do.
I ran at Pa. One thing led to another, swiftly I moved, gracefully the motions were carried out and Pa laid on the floor in a pool of his own blood, and a knife in his chest. I felt better. I beat my father this time.
‘How could you!’ Ma screamed as she crawled to Pa’s side. Innocents fled her being as the pool of blood grew wider and thicker all around her. ‘How could you, you monster!’
I hated that word. I hated what I was watching. I just saved her from a beating and all she could do was crawl to his aide, and blame me. Mother use to do the same, when I would save her from a beating. I should have killed him for that, but I didn’t. My head hurt too badly then. It doesn’t hurt right now I thought. I should do now, what I should have done then.
‘Why?’ she cried. ‘He didn’t deserve this you Son-of-a…’ she lost her innocents at that moment, and her life.
Mother and father should have been dealt with the same back then. But back then I was too weak. I was in too much pain. Maybe that’s what I should do. ‘Finish the job’ as they would say.
The key strokes grew louder
“Sir are the Andersons dead?” the operator asked, this time she sounded frantic. “Are the kids ok?”
“The kids?” he said, not as much as a question. He flicked his lighter and lit another smoke. His pain was completely gone. He smiled as he sat there and thought about what he should do.
“Sir, a deputy is on his way! Are the kids ok?”
“You see, when you go to someone’s rescue and they call you a monster for doing it. What they really mean is that you shouldn’t have. You interfered with what they thought was right or at least what they wanted.” He said as calm as he has been since he first called.
He knew not of this place. He knew nothing about it, yet it all seemed very familiar to him. He thought he remembered a place called ‘Courserbanks’ in Wyoming, when he was younger. He couldn’t figure it out. It was like a thought in the back of his mind, that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard he tried. He felt at peace, sitting there in the living room with all the lights off. No noise. He felt like he knew what he had to do. He smiled.
“Sir, are the kids alright?” She asked, bringing his attention back to the phone.
“I know what I have to do.” He said to the operator. “I have to correct the wrongs.” He took another drag of his smoke.
“Sir, we have you.” The operator said. “We’ve been monitoring you all along. A deputy will be with you shortly.” Her voice sounded different.
He sat there in the dark pondering his next move. His parents should pay for what they’ve done to him. The pain he’s dealt with for all these years. So much pain. Now he knows how to get rid of the pain. He knows his next move.
“Sir the children…” the operator said.
He thought about the children earlier. He knew they had fled to their fort before he went into the kitchen. He tried to remember what the boy had said about where it was. He knew that they didn’t know about dear old ma & pa. Then he remembered.
“Sir, are you still there?” the operator’s voice sounded deeper, more sinister than before. “What about the children, have you dealt with them?
He laid his cigarette in the ash tray and looked at the front door. He stood up and headed for it. He knew what he had to do next. His head didn’t hurt anymore.
“Sir, are you still there?”
“Should I tell you what I’m about to do?”
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