2011 -- 3.2 (Spring) Fiction

A New Beginning

by: Angela Berryman

After she finished with feeding the last of the animals in the barn, Katie headed toward the main house to get the girls ready for their ballet class.  Katie is a stay at home mom, with more chores than your typical housewife. On top of keeping the home clean, caring for her two children she shares with her husband, she also runs their mini-farm. With all her daily chores she also has an ungrateful husband that treats her horribly. She grew up on a farm so she didn’t look at that as the hard work, dealing with her husband Joe is the hardest job to her.

If you were to ask any of Katie’s friends and family, they will tell you that she has a heart of gold, she never gets mad or angry, never yells and will do anything for anyone even without being asked. But her husband tells her the exact opposite making her feel less than nothing. Anytime she gets a chance alone she cries to get some of her frustration out and   almost every night she cries herself to sleep.  Joe never notices though. If he does he doesn’t say anything, not like he cares. She makes sure on a daily basis she tries to keep it together for her children.

Joe is not a typical guy that will have a bad day then will take it out on his wife when he gets home. He calls her mean horrible names on a daily basis, he never shows her any affection, much less tell her that he loves her. Katie knows he doesn’t love her. Why else would he feel the need to cheat on her all the time? He loves having his “women on the side” and he even calls them that right in front of her. He will say things like, “Going out with my girls tonight be back later.” She knows he isn’t just talking about regular girl friends.

After finally reaching the back door she sighed, wiped her feet and tried to think about her girls so that she wouldn’t be so down in front of them. When she walked in the back door she saw Meadow sitting at the kitchen table doing her homework. She walked over to the kitchen sink and washed her hands and asked her, “You about done with your homework Sweetie?”

“I have one more problem,” she told her mom without looking up from her paper.

“Look! I’m a buttafly!” Laura her three year old cried hopping into the kitchen in her tutu.

“Ahh, honey! Look at you! You are a beautiful butterfly. But baby butterflies have wings so that they can fly not hop.” Katie told her as she pulled her into her lap to brush her hair.

Her smiled faded and whispered, “That’s why I hop, because I don’t got the wings.”

Just as Laura finished her sentence, Joe swung the kitchen door open and screams, “What the fuck is your problem?”

“Honey, please not in front of the girls,” Katie pleaded with him as Laura jumped out of her lap and ran out of the kitchen. Katie squeezed Meadow’s hand and quickly told her, “Don’t worry about that now. We’ll finish that in the morning before I take you to school. Go get ready for

“Hey bitch, I am talking to you, what the fuck is your problem?”  He screamed at her again.

“I don’t know what you mean honey. What’s the matter?” she almost couldn’t hear herself talk she wasn’t even sure if he even heard her. She cleared her throat to say it again, “I don’t-”

“I heard what you said you stupid bitch! Where the fuck is my dinner at? I have somewhere I have to be tonight!” He screamed cutting her off.

“Please don’t yell, you are scaring the girls,” she pleaded with him.

“Don’t tell me what to do and answer me already.”

“Joe it’s Tuesday night, I take the girls to ballet class and you know I don’t have the time to cook dinner until I get home. I’m going to take the girls to Wendy’s and get some dinner. If you want I can bring you something home, or you can have something while you are out if you can.” Katie spoke quietly.

“Sure whatever, you are worthless and so are your two brats of children that you have.”

Katie felt her face get hot and grow red. It was a different kind of feeling than she was used to. This time it wasn’t from being embarrassed or being shy. She felt anger growing inside of her. Joe knows as well as she does, that both of those wonderful girls belonged to the both of them.

“How could you say such horrible things about the girls? You know just as well as I do that those beautiful children are yours as well as mine!” she screams at the top of her lungs, grabs her purse and runs out the front door.

The girls were standing at the SUV waiting patiently for her, “Are you girls ready?” she asked them, helping them into the SUV. When she got behind the wheel she sat and thought a minute, how could he say such a horrible thing?

As she drove the girls to their class after getting their dinner, she sat and thought to herself all the horrible things Joe does and says to her. She actually yelled at him! She has never yelled at anyone her whole life.

“Will you please stop screaming at the top of your lungs girls?” Katie asked when they were almost to their class. Even though Katie was still upset with what just happened with Joe she still never gets upset with the girls, no matter how much they carry on.  She can’t stand the fact that they always witness his temper.

“Sorry mom,” Laura apologized.

“Yeah mom we are sorry,” Meadow said. Then Meadow turns to her sister and whispered, “We don’t want to make mom angry with us.”

Even though she thought she was whispering Katie heard her daughter’s sarcastic remark. She could feel her face turn a little red. Even her daughters knew they could get away with anything and that they couldn’t make her mad enough to really get upset.

“Here we are girls,” Katie said giving Meadow a kiss before she hopped out of the SUV.

“Okay Mom,” Laura exclaimed happily, giving her mom a kiss.

“See you at eight Mom,” Meadow said while helping Laura out of her seat.

“Bye girls, have fun and I love you too.” Katie drove away after watching the girls bound up the stairs and into the studio. She loves it when they have their ballet lessons. It is the only chance Katie has to be alone. She always tells Joe that she stays and watches the girls practice, but she never does. She uses this time to be alone and to think, something she so desperately needs.

To kill the time, she sometimes goes to the mall to shop, just walk around, or go to the movies. Her favorite place to go though is the dock. After the way Joe had been to her earlier tonight she felt the dock is where she wanted to be. She loves going to the dock to watch the water, waves, and night boats that floated by. It was such a peaceful way for her to spend her nights alone. When she pulled up to the empty dock, she felt a sense of disappointment. She kind of hoped to see someone there, so that maybe she could be the one to have an affair. Give Joe a taste of his own medicine. I’m so tired of him treating me this way. If it wasn’t for the girls I would have thrown him out on his ass long ago. But would they even miss him? What’s the matter with you of course they would miss them, he’s their father.

Just then she saw a car with no lights pull up.  “Great,” she said aloud, “someone is here to join me after all.” The car stopped and parked right next to a boat that was off to the side.  When the person climbed out of the car, it appeared to be a man. Maybe I can go try and strike up a conversation. Just as she was going to get out of the SUV to see if she could get a closer look at the guy, she noticed that the man was pulling something out of the trunk of his car. She leaned on her steering wheel so that she could see as far as she could. She couldn’t believe it, is that a body he is carrying? She couldn’t be sure and she knew she couldn’t leave without being seen; or him getting her plates and possibly come and find her and the girls. So she sat and watched the man in black pull the body out of the trunk. After he struggled with the body, he finally got it out on the pavement he closed the trunk and dragged the body to the boat sitting at the edge of the dock. When he got to the boat he slung the body over his shoulder and threw it on the boat. He then climbed in the boat himself and started the engine up.

Am I really seeing this? Just as soon as he appeared he was gone in the night with his boat. She quickly drove off and pulled into an empty parking lot to think about what she just saw. How could someone do something so horrible? Could that man really have killed someone and was just going to simply dump them into the ocean like garbage? That’s a horrible thing for someone to do. I can’t believe I just left like that I should have called the cops or something. “Why though?” she thought out loud. It had nothing to do with her why should she get herself into a situation that she’d have no control over? After sitting for a few minutes, she had a crazy idea.  What if I could get away with something as crazy as that? Kill someone and just dump them off into the ocean? What’s wrong with me, how could I think of something so horrible?

After sitting and thinking for quite some time she realized that it was time for her to go pick up the girls. She started the SUV and drove back to the studio, finding the girls waiting outside. When she pulled up they ran out to the SUV, and helped them climb in. “So how did it go girls?”

“It was super fun mom, the best time I have had yet,” Meadow exclaimed. “Laura was having a little trouble tonight though.”

“Oh Laura, honey, you will get the hang of it soon enough,” she told Laura as they started driving home.  When she pulled in the driveway she saw Joe’s car and a car that was unfamiliar to her. He better not have brought some hussy home like he did the last time, she angrily thought to herself. He just recently started bringing them home, and she couldn’t believe that he may have done it this time knowing when the girls get home. She could actually feel a sense of anger growing inside her. She is started to feel sick and tired of the way Joe treats her. If that is a woman in my house…

“Girls we’re here. It looks like your dad has a friend over, so let’s go through the back door so we don’t interrupt them.” She said interrupting her own thoughts. She directed the girls as she pushed her keyless entry button to turn on the alarm.

“Okay mommy,” Laura said happily. If there is a girl in there she didn’t want the girls to see that, she also didn’t want them to see the anger she felt growing inside of her. They have never seen Katie get angry or yell, and she didn’t know how they would react to that.

When she opened the side door to the kitchen nobody was sitting at the table, and Katie felt a sigh of relief when she saw the kitchen was empty. “Go on girls let’s go up stairs and put on your jammies.” She followed the girls up the stairs to get them ready for bed. She did not want them to see or witness anything that could ruin them. Knowing that Joe had a woman with him more than likely she knew the girls would be confused. After getting them in their jammies and tucked them in bed she gave them both a kiss on their forehead and told them goodnight.

After getting the girls into bed, Katie stood at the top of the stairs and listened. “It’s okay baby, she doesn’t care, she is upstairs with her bratty children putting them to bed,” she heard Joe say to someone. At that point she knew it was a woman in the house after all. She could fell the anger growing inside of her again. How could he say I am the one that has been with other people to say that about our children? Now he has the nerve to bring some hussy into my house and treat her so sweetly when he can’t do that once with me or the girls?

Katie felt she had enough, twelve years of Joe’s horrible actions and attitude towards her, she just couldn’t take it anymore. She crept into the kitchen so that Joe and his hussy wouldn’t hear her. She then stood over the knife block that held her biggest knives. I can’t take this anymore; I will just get rid of his ass the same way that man I saw do tonight, what a perfect idea. She pulled out the meat cleaver and stared at it for a minute. Expect I won’t need to take them to the pier I will just feed them to my hungry little animals outside. She couldn’t believe where her thoughts were coming from, but she no longer cared anymore. She ran into the living room with the cleaver raised in her hand and screams, “You no good son of a bitch!” landing the cleaver down on his spine, and striking four more times until he lay dead and bleeding on the tile floor. The woman that was sitting next to him was in horror her mouth wide open, as she brought down the cleaver on the woman’s head, and she too lay bleeding on the tile floor.

Katie stood in horror at the two dead bodies lying on her living room floor. She had to act quickly before the girls came down and saw what had happened. Katie knew she couldn’t carry the bodies out to the barn to feed her pigs unless she made them into smaller pieces. She then started chopping at the arms and legs of both of the bodies, then putting them into a wheel barrel she put up against the house earlier in the day.

After walking out into the barn, she called to them, “Come on pigs, I brought you an excellent snack, I hope you enjoy.” She said as she dumped the remains into the pig pen, watching them furiously eating away at the remains. Tired and exhausted Katie went upstairs to get herself cleaned off so that she could get ready for bed.

####

The next morning Katie went downstairs to make some coffee, she felt a sense of relief over her. Joe was no longer there to yell, scream or put her down and she couldn’t be happier. But what would she tell the girls? Just as she thought what to tell them they came running down the stairs.

As they sat down to eat their breakfast she said to them, “Girls I have to tell you something very important. Your dad is no longer living with us. Last night he decided he couldn’t take living with us anymore. I am sorry, but we will be just fine.”

“Really?” Meadow asked very excited, “I am so glad to hear that. Daddy was so mean I know I won’t miss him.”

“Me too I am glad he is gone,” Laura said.

That was all Katie needed to hear, that they wouldn’t miss him after all. She then went to the stove to start cooking the girls some bacon and eggs for their breakfast.