Daddy's Guns (626 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.42 on 24 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Vicousness63 (View user info) at 2007-06-08 01:07:59 EDT
The creaking of her grandmother's old rocking chair punctuated the background noise of frustrated yells and heavy objects crashing to the floor almost poetically. The rug beneath the chair was old and worn, spattered with old blood and vomit from it's years of misuse. Flesh from a fresh apple fell to the floor lightly, releasing a pungent, sweet smell into the room. Minnie continued to peel and rock as if in a trance, singing loudly her grandmother's old hymns.
"I was a stranger brother right in sin, didn't even have the love of God within. But now I've found Him and I'm glad to say, I love my savior more everyday."
The men in suits ran frantically from room to room, pleading with her, yelling at her, cursing her. Her five little girls sat mutely on the torn up couch, while her youngest boy played absentmindedly with an empty gun. "Bang bang!" he yelled, pointing the gun at the men ransacking his home. One of the men laughed scornfully, and turning to Minnie, said, "Just tell us where ye put it, ma'am. We'll git out of here and never blacken your doorstep again." He spoke as eloquently as Minnie'd ever heard in Kentucky, but she wasn't fooled.
"You're a country boy," she said, interrupting her song. He nodded confusedly. "I've not got a thing, and you shouldn't be harassing your own kind." Angrily, he swept a pile of papers from her coffee table. As the papers floated down lazily around her head, Minnie continued her hymn.
"God loves His children brother, yes I know. He will protect you anywhere you go. Just call the point, he will get you there. God will protect you brother anywhere."
"Why, you're abso-fuckin'-lutely looney lady!" And with that, he continued emptying her drawers and overturning her furniture.
Deep down in the cellar, rats chewed holes on Minnie's old dresses and listened to her chair rock slowly above, while the 30 jugs of moonshine sat dormant.
___________________________________________
Later that evening, Minnie sat on the floor of her kitchen and held her children. The men were gone, but they all wept.
"When's daddy comin' home mama?" Mabel demanded, choking on her words.
"I just don't know, sweetheart."
"I don't want him to ever come home." Vincent spat out viciously. "I hope he rots in jail."
Ignoring her brother's callous words, Mabel whimpered, "Why'd daddy have to go?"
"Because, well..." Minnie hesitated before responding. "Daddy was making stuff he wasn't supposed to be making," she finished lamely.
Mabel buried her face in her mother's bosom and murmured, "moonshine?"
Surprised at her daughter's astuteness, Minnie nodded.
Vincent looked incredulous. "Well what are we gonna do with it now? Why didn't you just give it to those men?"
"Because we've lived in filth long enough. Your daddy aint comin' home for a while, and we're gonna make it without him. I'm gonna buy you a new dress, Ruby, and you too, Bethel. Jeanette, you need shoes. Tomorrow we'll go into town. Tomorrow we're gonna live like rich folks." Minnie smiled to herself, and her words seemed to quiet her children.
"Those men called you crazy, momma. Are you crazy?" Ruby, the youngest girl, asked after a few moments silence.
"Why yes, I think I am." Minnie smiled, and with those words, she realized she was finally free. If only for a little while.
______________________________________________
A week later the house glittered like a diamond. Minnie had cleaned it from top to bottom, and the new furnishings looked stately next to the oak paneling that lined the bottom half of every wall in their home. A new radio, the first they'd ever owned, blared loudly from the kitchen. The moonshine had sold like hot cakes. The girls all sat contentedly on the couch, sipping lemonade and playing tic tac toe in their trendy new dresses. The afternoon sun shone brilliantly through the blinds, highlighting Ruby's blonde hair, turning it from yellow to gold. Her cheeks radiated with a healthy pink glow, and her small hands were washed and perfumed. Even Vincent looked relieved, as he sat on the floor, playing with his father's rifle. Minnie, as usual, sat in her old rocking chair, peeling an apple. This time, she tossed the peels to the dog, who'd never before been allowed in the home. A pot of stew simmered on the stove, and the smell of cigars and gun powder was pleasantly masked by bread rising in the oven. The feeling of ease was incomparable.
Breaking their serene silence was the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. "Vincent, go see who's here." Minnie muttered absentmindedly. He got up lazily, still holding the rifle, though it was now slung at his side, and flung open the door with a haughty indifference. His demeanor soon changed. Strolling scornfully up the walk was his father, and a police car was now pulling carefully away from their house. Vincent opened his mouth to scream, but instead just took a few steps back.
"What is it?" Ruby demanded.
"God damn sons of bitches."
"Chester?" Minnie half screamed, half gasped.
"What in the name of the baby Jesus are you cooking in here, woman?" was his unceremonious reply.
"Stew," Ruby answered, her eyes downcast.
"Well hurry it up. I woulda been happier with cow shit than the slop they fed us in there." He plopped down violently on the couch and kicked off his dirty old boots. Everyone sat in tentative silence, waiting for his next move. "Damn cops, finally got 'em to let me out after I offered 'em a little of what I'd been brewin'." Laughing, he added, "They can be bought easier than a hooker on Flag street."
"Please don't talk that way in front of the kids." Minnie said softly, her long black hair free from the braid it was usually tied in.
"Shut up, woman! Hey-" Chester stopped short of continuing his insult. "Why are you all dressed up? When'd you get that dress?" he eyed her suspiciously.
"I bought it for her," Vincent said, hoping his father would let it rest.
"Bull fucking shit you did! What the fuck did you fucking leeches do while I was gone?" Wrenching the gun out of his son's hand, he fired a shot that hit right over Minnie's head. She started, and realizing what had happened, rushed towards Chester. He fired another one, and everyone quit moving. "What the fuck happened here? Where'd you get the money for this? Is that a god damned radio?" He walked briskly, angrily into the kitchen, and seeing that it was indeed a radio, knocked the pot of stew from the stove. Pausing for a moment, the realization of what had actually happened set in. His expression turned from confusion to wrath in a split second. "I know what you did! You took all my hard work and you flushed it down the god damned drain! I'll kill you Minnie, I'll fucking kill you!" He rushed at her with the butt of the rifle, a crazed look on his etched face. His yellowing eyes, laced with a web of fiery red blood vessels, were opened impossibly wide and spit was being forced from his sneering mouth as he began beating his wife with the end of the gun. His hands were shaking, but his aim was accurate. He got in three brutal hits before Vincent attacked him from behind.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Vincent shrieked, jumping on his father's shoulders. Chester fired three shots, aimed roughly over his shoulder, but none hit his son. Quickly, with nothing short of murder in his mind, Vincent stabbed his father in the left shoulder with the knife his mother had been using minutes before to peel an apple. An anguished yell told Vincent he had hit his target. Letting go of his father, he signaled for his sisters to follow and led them out the front door.
Minnie stayed frozen in her position on the floor. The pain in her hip and stomach was so intense she felt nearly paralyzed. Her vision was dazed, yet she knew that if she did not move she would be killed. She managed to crawl slowly to the door. Chester, however, still with the rifle in his possession, staggered over to her position. His wound wasn't bleeding too badly, and with strength born from adrenaline only, he dragged Minnie by her hair back into the recesses of the house.
As they neared their bedroom, Vincent stopped to hit the struggling Minnie twice more at her breastbone. The force knocked the air out of her and she quit struggling. Heaving her body a few more steps Vincent stopped at the bed. He took her beautiful long hair and carefully tied it to the bed. After making sure it was sufficiently matted, and could not be undone, he left her there to hemorrhage internally.
During this, the children had locked themselves timidly in the Cadillac. Their father exited the house, covered in blood, and immediately the girls began screaming. "He killed mama," Vincent kept repeating, ignoring his sisters' hysterics. His hands were twitching uncontrollably, and without thinking, he dove into the front seat. The keys were left in the ignition, as always, and he turned them just as he'd seen his father do many times before. When Chester heard the engine roar, he fired a well aimed shot at the front seat. However, Vincent was too short to even see over the dashboard. "PUSH THIS PEDAL PUSH THIS PEDAL!" he yelled urgently at Ruby. Carefully, like a soldier in the trenches, she clambered over the seat to the tune of cracking glass and bullets whistling over her head. She used her tiny hands to push down the gas, and before Chester could even register what was happening the car was roaring towards him. He was all out of bullets, and helplessly, he froze. The car hit him going only 20, but with Dorothy's help, Vincent threw the car in reverse and backed over his father, nearly crushing his skull in the process.
Without even stopping the car, the children climbed out and ran into the house. They yelled for Minnie, but when she did not respond they feared the worst. But, as if on cue, the children heard a sudden noise, coming from their parents' bedroom.
"Brother take warning while yet you have time, don't let old Satan lead you on down the line. Just tell old Satan to stay out of your way, God loves His children brother everyday." Minnie's voice rang shakily out from behind the closed door.
They burst into the room and with horrified eyes saw their mother's bruised, swollen body. She laid serenely on the floor, her eyes wide and staring but not wholly processing.
"Are you okay, mama?" Ruby asked timidly.
"My insides are hurt," was all she said.
"We have to cut her hair," Vincent said decisively.
"NO!" All five girls yelled out, staring in terror at their mother's beautiful black hair. "You can't," Ruby added mournfully. But Vincent had already pulled the same knife used to stab his father from his pocket.
"You're gonna look real pretty mama." Hacking away at her hair, Vincent realized for the first time just how remarkable his mother was. Her breathing was shallow, and her face covered in drying, caking blood, but she was more beautiful at that moment than anyone he'd ever seen.
Finally, after severing her beautiful hair from her head, Vincent and his sisters managed to carry her out into the daylight. Their father was lying deathly still, but his chest was rising and falling almost imperceptibly. Upon seeing this, the children's faces took on a look of defeat.
"Let's finish him," Vincent whispered. The girls nodded. Running into the kitchen, Vincent retrieved a can of gasoline and a book of matches. "This will have to do." His sisters looked mortified, but they did not protest. He poured the gasoline all over his father's brittle body as casually as if he were watering a flower. When he lit the match, however, his hand shook noticeably. "I - um..." turning to his sisters, he looked bewildered. Dorothy nodded, urging him on. Vincent closed his eyes and dropped the match. The smell of burning hair and burning cloth filled the air immediately.
From her spot on the porch, Minnie viewed the scene with dazed, swollen eyes. Staring into the flame with an unexplainable feeling of triumph, she sang, "I'm glad I've found and I'm on my way, I'm going to follow Jesus everyday. Nothing can change me and I'm glad to say, God loves His children brother every day."
The crackling of Chester's body in juxtaposition to Minnie's voice provided a beautiful soundtrack, and smeared with the blood of their parents, they danced, forever angry, confused, and melancholy.
User Reviews
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-06-11 13:15:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked that post. Mainly because I like attention, good or bad. It's why I Uber.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-06-11 12:56:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
we both know what i'm jealous of, scourge.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/98379
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-06-11 12:50:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i agree with hidden. it's why ghola spammed all my posts with -2s.
jealousy.
i gave this a 2 simply because i didn't read a word of the post and i don't really intend to either. someone tell me if i should.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-06-11 12:36:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
go look at every other post she has, which i have +2'd in the past.
moron.
Submitted by hidden101 (user info) at 2007-06-11 06:50:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
ghola is jealous because her writing is total crap and this was good.
Submitted by viciousness63 (user info) at 2007-06-11 05:30:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Void_Where_Prohibited (user info) at 2007-06-08 11:17:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Good, but I feel like I've read this somewhere else.
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You've never read this anywhere else. I wrote it in the submit box, and I haven't posted it elsewhere.
Thanks for the criticism guys, I really didn't edit this at all, except for to skim for spelling errors.
And Ghola, this isn't usually how I write. This was more of a linear plot than I'm used to doing. If it felt awkward, that's why.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-06-10 17:44:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
more awkward than your other posts
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-06-09 15:00:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I feel like I've already read this, so after I finished I checked the dates on the reviews. Is it really June already? That's crazy.
Submitted by TechnoRatty (user info) at 2007-06-09 14:32:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I totally enjoyed reading this.. you rock!
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-06-08 11:26:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Void_Where_Prohibited (user info) at 2007-06-08 11:17:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Good, but I feel like I've read this somewhere else.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2007-06-08 11:00:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was pretty good. The only thing was that when the husband was dragging Minnie up the stairs, you accidentally called him "Vincent" instead of "Chester". Other than that, aces.
Submitted by lover101 (user info) at 2007-06-08 09:39:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DasHeer (user info) at 2007-06-08 08:54:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
just a question, when was the unloaded rifle loaded? you never mention it, so it seems like a bit of a continuation problem, but overall it was awesome
Submitted by Flapjacksupreme (user info) at 2007-06-08 07:27:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
You will fix your display name or I will refuse to fuck your asshole and jiz on your face. Oh, I'm still drunk. I may come back to this review and ask how it got here, kthnxbhye
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2007-06-08 07:25:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was really good, trying to think of some constructive criticism but can't.
Simply excellent.
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-06-08 04:26:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Huh...
Not bad at all, but more disturbing, in some ways than what KK usually submits.
I would have approached it a bit differently as some of the language was a bit clumsy. Still, well worth the time it took to read.
+2 for you.
Submitted by darkwulffe (user info) at 2007-06-08 04:07:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
not bad
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-06-08 02:46:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Didn't Read it but I'm pretty sure it was good.
Yay being drunk. +2's for everyone.
Who wants one????
Submitted by PukingDog (user info) at 2007-06-08 01:19:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-06-08 01:18:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by viciousness63 (user info) at 2007-06-08 01:14:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I make that face everytime I come here. It's quite easy once you get the hang of it.
Submitted by earth_collapse (user info) at 2007-06-08 01:14:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow, this is disturbing.
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2007-06-08 01:12:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Try to make a face, while dancing no less, that looks angry, confused and melancholy. It looks like there's a bad smell somewhere.