The Collective-Four Shorts E-Book

J.M. Barber

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A man pens a note to his wife while stranded in the desert. A man tries to kill a mouse sent from hell. A man finally expresses how he feels to his family in the worst way imaginable. These stories and more are included in J.M. Barber's exciting collection of short stories.

Leseprobe

J.M. Barber

The Collective-Four Shorts

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

At Robert's

I felt that I knew my brother Robert better than any of the relatives that had come to his house on that gray day in late December. It had been to attend the gathering after the funeral of my late sister-in-law, Melissa Madison. In the twenty five years I’d known my brother, whether strength had been something he had, or something that was more in question, had never seemed to cross anyone’s mind. Like we knew the faces of our family and friends, we knew Robert was strong. He was a tall, dark skinned man with eyes and a voice that almost screamed intelligence; and someone who was kind enough, and not too caught up in preserving his image of strength, to lend a hand or an ear when someone found the courage to ask.

But on this day, he was the one asking the questions.

“Do you think she was crying when she pulled the trigger or had the tears run out?”

He’d asked me this as I’d searched my purse for another tissue. I hated these things. These gatherings. This was far from my first one. I’d attended my mother and father’s funerals within a span of three years. I didn’t need them. And I didn’t need this get-together, which was only a different term for The Funeral Part 2. If I ate any of those damn cheese squares, bologna slices, or shrimp being passed around on a metal tray, something more would come out of my mouth than just an answer to his question. I felt sick.

I raised my eyebrows at Robert and tried to show whatever strength I could. But wondered if he just said what I thought he had. “Huh?”

He wiped some lint off the black suit jacket he wore with the back of one brown hand, and repeated, quite composed, “Do you think my wife was crying when she pulled the trigger or had the tears run out?”

We were the only ones in the sitting area, family members and the minister from our church in another section of the house discussing Madison, praising Madison, and praising Robert though Robert probably cared about that about as much as he cared about what lunch specials they currently had down at the local diner. I sat across from him on one of the chairs. He sat with one foot resting up on his knee at the end of the couch.

I put a gloved hand on his. Looked into his eyes. “Don’t think about that, okay?”

“Take that crap off please.”

For a second I didn’t know what he was talking about, wondering if he’d meant to say something about my answer, and misspoke due to the sheer strain that must’ve been wearing on his mind. But of course, the gloves! I took them off and put them in the purse.

“I’m twenty nine Kim,” Robert said. “And I’ve done a lot for this family and that damn parasite that serves as Melissa’s church. Don’t talk to me like I’m your little brother. Was she crying or had

the tears stopped!”

A few glances came our way, but with the weight of the day and lack of sleep, I barely noticed. And I wished my brother wouldn’t do this. I understood, but I wish he wouldn’t. He was helping to make my stomach twist and knot like a kid playing with rope.

“Please don’t yell at me,” I said quietly, looking down at the floor. I couldn’t look at him. I felt that if I did that the waterworks would flood like Noah’s Ark. And the last thing he needed was to have to comfort me.

Robert chuckled, and looked over his shoulder toward the dining area of his house. My brother couldn’t stand the idea of anyone religious in his home. Not from the black church he and his wife attended, or from any church for that matter. Even if he hadn’t made his feelings on organized religion felt countless times before, the look that remained in his eyes when he turned away from the guests said it all. It was a look of utter disdain.

“Answer my question, sis,” he said, producing a Smirnoff vodka shooter from his inside suit pocket, one that you could get for about a buck at any register at your local liquor store. It was getting late. And I knew the later it got the drunker he would become.

“Come on, don’t do that Robert,” I said.

He didn’t hear me though. Before I’d even finished the six words he was already reaching for the next one. His gaze wasn’t even on me, it was slightly down, focused on nothing. He was muttering to himself.

“I don’t know what your wife felt Robert,” I told him. “But you have to know she’s in a better place. You need to know that.”

Behind Robert, in dining room, the group of roughly twenty had their heads bowed in prayer, led by the minister, Michael Steely, himself. I could see our two older sisters, Kema and Madelyn, wearing black attire like the rest, could see one of my aunts, a dress big enough to carpet the floor covering her considerable figure.

Robert had his eyes closed tightly, one hand clenched to near crushing point around his Vodka bottle. He said quietly, his eyes remaining closed,

“Please, Kim, tell me they’re not doing it again.”

“Your wife’s in a better place,” I repeated, putting a hand on his knee, hoping to steer his attention away

from what was going on behind him.

Robert opened his eyes. Leaned in and pointed at me. “You don’t know that Kim,” he said slowly. He leaned back on the couch again, and made the liquid in the next Vodka shooter disappear. “There’s plates and forks and all that other bullshit. Go make me something to eat sis.”

I leaned forward. “Okay. But they’re having a prayer. Don’t send me walking through that room all causing a disturbance when they’re having a prayer.”

Robert’s eyes widened. If what he said next had come another time I might have laughed. He

told me carefully, “I want some cheese and ham slices, Kim.”

I sighed. “Just wait a minute, okay?”

Robert said nothing, and we were silent for a few moments, both of us just listening to the baritone rhythm of Steely’s voice, as he spoke the prayer behind us.

“—ask you to bless brother Robert and give him and his family the strength to make it through such a terrible time. We ask you with all your eternal strength and wisdom to bless sister Kimberly, so she can help brother Robert through this time. We know that sister Melissa smiles down from above. We know that—”

“You think they could stop cursing everyone in my family,” Robert said, his elbow resting on the back of the couch.

“What do you mean?”

“Bless this and bless that. Coming from him it’s a freaking curse.”

“You know you don’t mean that Robert. Come on.” I reached out to touch him again. His eyes narrowed back on me. Two black pupils that seemed to radiate a blistering rage. “I’m hungry. Get me some food.”

“All right,” I conceded, standing up. “All right.” I put my hand on his shoulder as I passed. “Just stay here and I’ll get it for you.”

“Tell them to shut up those prayers if you can.”

I ignored that. I could never have views enough like my older brother’s to do such a thing. But I wasn’t going to waste energy and stir up confrontation by telling him so.

Down the hall the front door remained open, the screen door shut. A breeze wafted in, breaking my skin out in goosebumps. I crossed my arms and rubbed them with my hands, taking a left into the kitchen. Directly behind me in the dining area, what now seemed like an exceptionally long prayer, continued.

I took my hat off and put it on the counter across from the fridge . The person that had been passing out the food for the first half hour seemed to have walked out. If only he could have taken me with him.

I fixed my brother some food, and doing this task alone seemed to tie my stomach up in knots again. These damn processed cheese squares, meats, and shrimp on a day where any type of food seemed to nauseate me. But I dealt with it, knowing that this was better than dealing with cramps any day of the year. And I loved Robert. At the end of the day I made it through this for him. I was the only sister out of three that lived in the state, and he was my only brother. We were supposed to be there for each other.

When I came back Robert had just finished another shot, making them appear and disappear like he had a magician’s hand.

I handed him the plate and he frowned at me like I’d done something wrong.

“Tell those pricks to shut up.”

I looked in the direction of the dining room. Everyone was chatting with the minister, who I knew to be the center of attention wherever he went. “They’re not even praying anymore,” I told him.

He waved a hand at me. “Nuts and blind like the rest of them.”

“They’re not here because of me Robert.” I was getting a little upset, and now had to put some effort into keeping my voice calm. “Kema and Madelyn thought it was what Melissa would’ve wanted, remember?”

“And like an idiot I went along with it. Like they ever knew anything about my wife at all.” He took a deep breath. “What are you anyway sis?”

“I’m a Christian Robert. You know that. I’m just not that hard up is all.”