TABOO: THE COMPLETE SERIES(40)
The words hadn’t left his mouth when I grabbed the man’s jacket and tried to hit him but he ducked, and the man with the strange gun shot me.
I was right.
This was no ordinary gun. It looked like a tranquilizer dart and felt like a dozen, hot knives piercing through my shoulder. “No, please…”
Don’t let me sleep.
I have to be awake. I have to be awake! I have to see him…
I heard a huge thud and realized it was me falling to the ground on my face.
The minute the pain left I was dreaming.
Colton and me on a Caribbean beach with the sand and foam and the green skies that looked like they were holding a million secrets. But when I tried to touch him, I couldn’t do it. His hand kept slipping away and when I glanced down, I realized it was because of all the blood...
TABOO 5
KOL ANDERSON
? KOL ANDERSON 2017
COVER DESIGN BY LOUIS STEVENS 2017
WELDON
PRESENT DAY
“Mr. Huntington, here’s your coffee.” The nurse said, handing the cup to the weak, old man I could barely recognize as being my own father. It was strange, the odd mix of thoughts that went through my head, thoughts that were at the same time memories of love and reminders of anger as well as hate. If it was up to me, I would have gotten rid of the old man but Jackie and her children seemed to like him and I tried to maintain composure throughout our meetings that were sparse at best. I took the hot cup from my father’s hand and the nurse left, probably relieved she was leaving him safe with me. I picked up a teaspoon and emptied a pack of sugar into Dad’s coffee and stirred. I placed the spoon next to a line of empty food cartons from Chinese Hut and handed the coffee to Dad.
“If I didn't know any better, I thought you might be trying to poison me,” Dad said as a joke and I almost started to laugh.
“Not going to lie, the thought did cross my mind. But then it occurred to me I'd hate to get blood on my new shirt. Besides, if your new test results are any indication, that pack of smokes you hide from Jackie might do the job for me, so I decided to wait instead.”
“A man’s gotta die from something, Son.”
“How about you make a little more effort for your grandkids, Dad?”
Dad quietly watched the contents of the cup that he still hadn’t touched. The whiff of Jackie’s perfume hit me before her voice reached my ears. “Weldon!” she said, kissing my cheek. “Nice of you to drop by.”
“Don’t get used to it,” I said, but I knew Jackie was going to write that down as a definite win.
“Where’s Jake?”
I rolled my eyes. “For the last time, Jackie we’re not together!”
“Don’t tell me you pushed him away too!” Jackie said, and thankfully her attention was needed by my father when a line of spittle ran down one side of his face and Jackie rushed to wipe it off. My father was still silent. It would have been awkward but my sister was quick to speak. “So, who’s hungry?” she asked. “I bought Chinese!”
“I’m not feeling so great,” my father said and I noticed he was sweating. Jackie set the Chinese Hut cartons aside and went to check on him. “Do you want me to call the nurse?”
Something fell out of her purse.
I picked it up.
It was a receipt from Randy’s, a local grocery store but that wasn’t the unusual thing. The receipt was for some specific items. “Did you meet Trey?”
Jackie didn’t accept it but eventually she was intrigued. “How’d you…”
“This receipt is from his cousin’s store,” I said. “That you haven’t visited in years.”
“It’s a store receipt Weldon, what’s the big deal?”
“You met him, didn’t you?”
“So, what if I did! He’s an old friend…”
“No, he’s not, Jackie! He’s an old flame! You still carry a fucking torch for him, don’t you?”
Her face told me all that I needed to know. “No.”
“He was bad news then,” I said. “And he is bad news now!”
“It was a one-time thing, okay? His sister just died…”
The words jerked me out of my present and threw me way into the past and all kinds of things started coming back to me, memories about Trey and Jackie and Ryan…
I could barely make myself form words. “Aubrey’s dead?”
My sister looked at me as though I was lying about being in shock over the news. “I… I thought you knew…” she paused as I did my best to recover from the news. “Trey didn’t tell you?”
The receipt was dated for a week ago. “The sugar packets,” I said. “They’re not hospital provided?”
“That’s not sugar,” my sister explained. “It’s actually a substitute. You know how particular Dad is about getting the right one. Thought he’d prefer it…”
I grabbed the remaining packets and destroyed them. Then, just before Dad was about to drink from his cup, I pushed it away and the cup shattered on the floor, spilling warm liquid everywhere. “What’s the matter with you!”