He thought about what had happened while waiting in the ambulance. The man had resorted to violence right away. Windbag had not just hit him, but had knocked him on his ass. A lesser man would have been hurt, like a human. What if a child had upset him? What would Windbag have done then? Taken his candy. Dad asked him if he was all right. Dad, he hit me. Dad said that he’d been upset about being shown up. I guess that was my intention, but I never meant for him to be fired from this. He will be, too. Someone will get a burr up their butt and he’ll be asked to step down. The nursing home alone will be something that gets him into trouble. Not to lie to the public, that’s one of the number one rules of being the mayor. He’ll have to explain that one to the people here. Your mother will be the one doing that too. Asking him why he’d say such a thing, and why he’d not known about the nursing home. She does not condone any kind of violence, and when I had to hit him, and it was my pleasure, that made her twice as upset. You know her when she’s upset. He did too. Like I said, Jules, play it up for the camera. Not just for this, but because you hit your head and we don’t want any questions on that either. The news reporters were in full force too. But he liked Lisa and the fact that she’d helped him out, though not knowingly, of course, but she had helped him. And her interviewing the mayor about the nursing home, that was a biggie too. He was bombarded with questions. “Mr. Stanton, are you pressing charges?” “What provoked him to lash out at you like that?” “Are you truly going to take his place when he’s asked to step down?” The questions came at him fast. But instead of getting to tell them anything, Tess told them that she wasn’t allowing him to answer questions; he might have a concussion and she didn’t want him to say the wrong thing. He was in the ambulance before he could tell her that he was fine. There were more news vans there when he arrived at the hospital. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, so he just laid back and let himself be carried in. His eyes closed, he ignored the questions in favor of trying to think. Ruby was sleeping on his chest by then, making him feel a great deal better about life in general. Tess was barking orders that he needed to be let go inside, and when he was in a little private room, she kissed him on the mouth. “You scared the shit out of me.” Ruby lifted her head, then dropped right back down to sleep. Tess lowered her voice. “You do that again and I’ll beat you.” “I didn’t do anything.” Tess kissed him again. “I love you too, but I wasn’t doing anything to make him hit me. Well, I did, but at that moment I wasn’t. He just hit me, can you believe it?” “Yes, you’re a good man, and I love you. And you did a number on him, showing the people around here what having a man like yourself in office can do for them. And don’t be surprised if I keep you here overnight. You hit your head pretty hard, and I know you can shift it away, but for now, we’re going to err on the side of caution.”
“All right. Are you going to go before the cameras and let them know that you’re keeping me? If so, I’d not mention the fact that you’re going to get lucky when you do. And that my mom is coming to get little Ruby so that I can jump your bones.” She laughed and told him that he’d be lucky if he got lucky. “Oh, I will, love. I will.” ~~~ Dexter moved between the buildings. He was sure that his mom was close, but he wanted to make sure that Tessie was all right. When he saw her granddad, he made his way carefully to where he was standing. The man smiled at him, but he looked tense. “She’s okay, isn’t she? My mom didn’t hurt her again, did she?” He told him it was her husband that was hurt. “Husband. She told me that, I think. And her little baby? She’s all right too? Don’t you think she is about the prettiest little thing?” “Yes. She’s my great granddaughter, so yes, I think she’d about the best little girl I’ve ever seen. But they’re all fine. Are you all right, Dex? I’ve not seen you in a while.” He felt his mom and turned to find her. “You’re all right, son. I’m here if you need me.” “She wants me to kill the baby. No kids. No kids No kids.” He snapped his mouth closed. “Please tell her that I’m sorry. That I don’t want Mom to hurt her again.” “I’ll tell her, but you should go and talk to her, Dex. She’d like that.” He shook his head, and knew his mom was too close. “Dex, are you all right?” “She’s coming. Keep her safe.” His mom was right there then, like she’d been lurking and waiting for him to do something wrong. When she looked at Dr. O’Rourke, he did as well. “You’re to keep that whore away from my son, Ericson. I’ve had this conversation with you before. Have I not?” “You have, but they’re adults now, and don’t need you to keep them apart. Your son would have been better off had you been out of his life sooner.” She asked him how he figured that. “You’re a mean woman, and hateful to that boy.” “He’s the son of God, and He gave him to me to care for. You’re nothing. Not to anyone that means anything.” When Dr. O’Rourke asked her what she meant, Mom glared before answering. “You know just what I mean. You’re nothing because I say so.” “Your god, does he give you that power? To say when someone is something or not?” Just as he was sure his mom was going to answer, Dexter felt himself disappear. “Well, are you going to answer me?” Debra hated that she had to share time in the world with her worthless son. He might be the son of her god, but he was stupid as shit. She wanted him gone from her life, but nothing would work in getting rid of him. Not even killing that baby. The baby had been growing there, and God had told her that it had to go. That it would come between her power over the world and it. The thing was moving around like it was an infested worm, just eating away at the person carrying it. So Debra had done the best that she could, and drugged the woman up so that she could rid the world of the monster that she carried. It had been easy to tie her to the bed, really. Debra thought that it had been that easy because the woman, Alma her name had been, knew that she was carrying a monster. Once she was tied down, however, and Debra made the first cut to rid her of it, she had screamed at her to stop. It was for show, she knew it. It had taken her a long time to figure out where to cut. The monster seemed to know that it was being gotten rid of, and as soon as she made a cut over the womb, it would move to another part of the body. When she finally just sliced deep, killing it, that was when Dexter came back. “What the hell have you done?” He tried to put the slice back together, but all he managed to do was spill blood on her nice clean floor. “Mom, you’ve killed him. You’ve killed your grandson.” “That thing is no grandson of mine. It’s a monster. Just look at it. It’s red, like the devil himself. God told me to kill it, to rid the world of his evilness. I cannot do anything but that. Now get out of my way so that I can finish the job.” She hit the baby while Dexter was still trying to protect the thing, even after what she’d told him needed to be done. When the baby hit the floor, its body covered in goo and blood, she knew that she’d done the best thing possible and knelt down to pray. But Dexter wasn’t having it, and she had to hurt him too. Hitting him in the head, over and over, she decided that if he had to die too, then so be it. But he didn’t, and when the mess of the woman—the package, she’d begun to call Alma—died too, Debra knew there was no hope for it, they had to bury it in the yard. “You’ll help me.” Dexter didn’t move from holding onto the dead monster. Debra thought for sure that he was going to bring it back to life, but it was dead, and she was thrilled. “Dexter, you need to help me get rid of this mess. Burn it all. That’s the only way that the monster can be assured of dying.” He sat there for hours. No matter how many times she hit him, demanded or even begged him for help, he just sat there with the dead thing in his arms, rocking back and forth. Finally she gathered up the things that she needed, dumped the package on the bed, and then dragged it out of the house. Burning it seemed to be too much trouble now that she didn’t have help with it, so she dumped it in the hole that she’d used as an outhouse long ago. She knew that the hardest part was getting the monster from Dexter. Dexter was becoming too much work; even though he sent her money each month, she knew that he was spending the majority of it on his own whore. He should be thankful to her for what she’d sacrificed for him every d
ay. “Where is Dexter.” She came back to the present and told the doctor that he was right where she wanted him. “And where is that? I don’t see him.” “Of course you don’t, dumbass. He’s not here, but here. Inside of me.” She wanted to shock him, but he only nodded. “You don’t care that I have my son inside of me? The son of God?” “I don’t know what I think. Why do you believe you’re holding onto him? Because right now, I see him, not you.” That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “We found Alma and your grandchild.” When she lunged out at him, she fell forward. The fucking ass didn’t even have the manners to keep her from hitting her head. Well, she’d fix him, and pulled out the gun to shoot him. All it did was click when she pulled the trigger. Dexter had lied to her. The mother of the son of God, and he’d lied to her. Getting up, she reached for the doctor’s throat. Dead, her mind kept telling her, kill him because he had brought children into the world. All doctors needed to be dead. No kids. No kids. No kids. No kids. Her motto kept her sane while the world around her was going off the deep end. Telling him over and over while she strangled him, she smiled when his face began to turn a nice shade of purple. But she didn’t want him to die just yet; she needed to explain to him why he was going to die. So letting off his neck just enough for her to feel him gasping for breath, she smiled at him. “You are the instrument of evil. Bringing children into this world is what is going to make it come to the end, and only the chosen, the ones I deem worthy, will be there for my Lord to make sure that happens.” He looked at her hard, and then he laughed. “You must die. There can be no kids. No kids. No kids. No kids.” The pain took her breath away. When she fell off the doctor, she tried her best to scramble back over him, to finish what she had started. But she was hit from behind again and again until she could no longer move. Falling to the side, she looked up at the man standing over her, and asked him why he’d do such a thing. But when it got closer, she saw who it was. “You whore.” Tessie, the whore, laughed. “You are going to hell. See if you don’t. And when you are there, I shall piss on you and give you nothing.” “Pissing on me will be something you’re giving to me. The pee, you see.... Never mind.” Debra didn’t understand, and she hated that the whore was making her feel stupid. Trying to move her hands to get them wrapped around the whore, Debra saw the others there. “You’re going to jail, whoever you are at the moment. And if I have to hire an exorcist to get you out of there, I’ll fucking do it too. You have outstayed your welcome in our lives.” “I’ll be back, see if I’m not. You whore.” She told her that was getting old. “You are a whore, and you know it. When I’m back, I’ll take care that you get your punishment. I am the mother of the son of God.” “Yeah, whatever.” Then everything went black.
Julian Page 9
