Three Minutes More

by Edward O'Dell

  I never truly expected that she would take me to the doctor. Any reasonable doctor would quickly determine what happened, and her precious Charlie would be whisked away for raping a child. Of course, that is all assuming the police possessed a modicum of expertise. Though I’ve personally never had interaction with the police, I have heard far too many people protest their incompetence. The Old Man often said “the idiots that pass for police in this town couldn’t pass a one question test if that question asked what their names were.” I’ve also heard people claim the police were in the criminals’ pockets. I still don’t understand exactly what that means, but people often said it with conviction.

  “But tomorrow is Saturday. The Old Man is coming to visit,” I thought. I knew any outrageous claim I made against his cousin and aunt would be met with great skepticism. “But if I told him I was really sick, he might take me to the doctor. The doctor would then make the claim for me. That way, I won’t be held responsible for telling the family secrets.”

  I never mentioned The Old Man’s impending visit to Aunt Marilee. It was my ace in the hole.

  We had green beans and pork chops for dinner. For all her faults, that evil witch could cook. I really liked the way she cooked green beans. She slow cooked them with lard and bacon until they were tender. By the time they were done, the bacon flavor made its way into the green beans. They were, without question, the best tasting cooked vegetable I’d ever eaten.

  At the kitchen table, everyone was quiet. I sat on one side of the table, staring at the wall behind the unpopulated chairs that sat directly across from me. Marilee was at the head, while Charlie sat at the foot. I sat closer to Marilee. Charlie looked ashamed. Marilee was quiet. Not a single word was uttered. We didn’t even take a moment to acknowledge God, as we had for every meal until then.

  Frankly, I wasn’t all that hungry. But I didn’t want to incite any anger that might have hidden in either of them, so I ate green beans, one at a time.

  Suddenly, I had to run to the bathroom. I really felt the need to empty my bowels. The very moment I sat down, I felt my butt burning as poop and blood made its way out. I yelled toward the kitchen “Aunt Marilee! I’m bleeding again!” I was both scared and feeling a little faint. I asked her to call an ambulance.

  She comforted me. She handed me a couple of pills and said “Mike, it’s getting late. Take these aspirin. I promise you’ll feel better by morning. Go on to your room and try to sleep.”

  I took the pills and then went to my room. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I pushed the dresser in front of the door, trying to lodge it between the wall and the door handle. At the very least, it would give me a pretty healthy head start out the window and into the woods if that son of a bitch tried to get at me again. I couldn’t sleep. I thought “what am I going to do?”

  I reflected on the day’s events. I was angry and ashamed. Hurting both physically and emotionally, I cried for at least an hour. I thought of sneaking out of the window, but the night was already very dark. Unsure I would be able to make it the eight miles to town without getting attacked by a bobcat or a bear, I had to think of something else.

  “I will just stay awake tonight,” I thought. I had done it before. Sure, I didn’t feel good the next day, but it was nothing a good night’s sleep the following night couldn’t cure. “Yeah, that’s it. I’ll stay awake and sneak out at first light, before they wake up.”

  Now that I had a plan, all I had to do was wait. I decided I would not leave the room, no matter what. If either of them came to the door, I would pretend I was asleep. If they tried to get in, I would jump out the window and head off into the woods. If I had to go to pee, I would pee out the window. If I had to poop, then the pillow case would just have to be sacrificed.

  I made conversation with myself, murmuring answers to my own questions.

  As midnight approached, I started to feel a bit better. My butt still hurt a bit, but I had a little over four hours to go before I got out of there. “If I leave at first light, I can make it to Granny’s Greenhouse by eight. I’ll tell her – no, I’ll show her what happened. She’ll make sure Charlie won’t get me,” I thought.

  I thought about Eddie and James and Lee. I wished James had been here earlier. He would have smacked Charlie up aside the head with a pipe wrench or a baseball bat. I imagined Charlie on the floor, curled in the fetal position, begging James to spare his life. The thought made me feel better.

  About one-thirty, I started to grow very sleepy. “Please, not tonight,” I thought. The day’s events must have worn me down. My eyes grew heavy. I fought it as hard as I could. I couldn’t to go to sleep, no matter what. I needed to be up at first light, so I could run away.

  After ten more minutes, I could no longer fight it. I badly needed to sleep. “If I lay down,” I thought, “I won’t wake up in time to get away. If I’m sitting, I’ll just drift off for a few minutes.”

  So I sat straight up and allowed myself to drift off for desperately needed nap.

  Sometime later, I awoke to somebody moving about the room, shining a flashlight. I wondered how anyone could have made it into the room without waking me. “Aunt Marilee?” I asked.

  I was relieved that it was she, and not her son, who responded. “Yes it’s me. I just came to check in on you. How are you feeling?”

  I told her I was feeling a bit better. She asked if I felt like I still needed to go to the doctor. Sensing she was probing, trying to find out if I was going to tell on her son, I told her I no longer needed to see the doctor. I couldn’t see her face, but I hoped I eased her concern enough to leave me alone. I reflected on the way she looked at me as she closed the door to the bathroom earlier in the day.

  But none of that mattered anyway. I was awake again, and I could easily make it until morning. Inside, I was jubilant. I just needed to wait for her to go back to sleep, wait for the first sign of daylight, then be on my way to Granny’s.

  I have witnessed a lot in my short time here on Earth, but what happened immediately following can only be described as disturbing beyond imagination. Aunt Marilee shined the flashlight onto my face. “Do it, now!” I heard her shout.

  Those three words will likely be the last three I will ever hear another human utter. Before I could process why she would say that, I saw a big flash and heard a loud boom. I suddenly was blinded.

  Oh, sweet Jesus! My great aunt just told her no-good-pile-of-shit-son-of-a-bitch-pedophile son to shoot me in the head. And he did it, without hesitation!

  The bullet must not have hit me where they planned. I’m sure they both expected that I’d die immediately. But God, in His infinite mercy, has kept me alive for some three minutes, just long enough to allow me reflect on my short life, and to say my final goodbyes.

  It is becoming harder and harder to take in anything other than rapid shallow breaths. I can’t see anything. I must be bleeding badly, because I can now feel myself quickly growing faint. Eddie, if you can hear me, please make this right! James, I know if you were here, there would be two more dead people.

  At least Charlie won’t be able to hurt me anymore. Wait, what if he rapes me again after I’m dead? Will I feel it? Probably not. I don’t feel the pain in my butt anymore. In fact, I don’t feel physical pain at all.

  I hear noises, but I can’t make them out. I think Marilee and Charlie are talking. I think they are talking about what they are going to do with my body. I can’t make out where they say they are going to put me. I hope it won’t be too long before someone finds me.

  My final thought returns me to the day Eddie and I met the Indian on the creek. Maybe the Indian man was my spirit guide into the next world. Maybe we were meant to find him. Yeah, that must be it.

  Laboring as I draw my final, shallow breath, I go searching for him.

  “Mr. Indian, are you out there?”

 

 
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