A Resolution for Andrew Washington (388 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.28 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by gynoug <formerly garudave> (View user info) at 2007-08-25 18:54:20 EDT
Cool resolve washed over Andrew Washington. His marksmanship had rung true; his opposite in the duel had fallen. Blood poured from a hole in Garrett Remus' chest. It was a killing blow from any range, but the two men had been no more than ten feet away from each other... and Washington's hand was quickest.
Andrew, however, couldn't fully calm himself. Something was bothering him, though a one-year-long affair had just reached its violent resolution. He couldn't shake the idea that Remus' own weapon was raised and ready when he pulled the trigger... had the old man hesitated? Even as Washington's wife, Glenda, approached to grasp his left arm... even as Remus' own cronies rushed to him to assess the damage, Andrew was unable to allow himself a moment of victory. The resolve that washed over him a split-second before was replaced by confusion.
Those people who had previously watched the combat from inside the saloons lined along Gerard St. spilled out onto the dirt road... hopeful to see violence. Indeed, now that Washington caught a better view of Garrett's wound, he felt himself ill. His gun had bored a hole the size of a fist, coring Remus' chest most grievously. Andrew turned and began to walk in the opposite direction that he had just fired.
His ignorance of Glenda as he left the scene made her dread the coming events even more. If Andrew was so quick to destroy her father over arguments posed about their marriage, how would he react to the coming revelation she was to bring on him? In all truth, Andrew Washington was not a heartless man, nor did his woman think him so, but there are certain things that will steal compassion from any man--certain horrors that should not be revealed at any time, let alone in a time as filled with strife as this one.
The sun was setting over the canyon-tops in the distance. Andrew Washington paused in his relentless pace to watch this happen. He lit a cigar... in times like this, one's senses are tuned up so much that Andrew Washington felt he had never tasted a better cigar. His pleasure was brief, though, for his mind was wracked. Why had Garrett hesitated?
Glenda's eyes were torn between her exiting lover and her exited father. Garrett Remus had been a particularly evil man, especially to his daughter, but she couldn't help but feel emptiness develop as he made his worldly exit. One hand stretched across her flat abdomen, her mind stretching across the fact that new life was beginning there.
Andrew finally turned from that glorious sunset and its crown of purple skies. He peered at his wife through new eyes... the eyes of a killer. Icy sweat had developed on the back of his neck. A smile curved his lips as he faked resolution. His woman smiled back, though he had trouble figuring out how she could. Their time together had been so rife with confusion and violence that he wondered. How can I love someone who has wrought me so much turmoil? he thought.
Night fell quickly. Eventually everything died down. No one approached Washington tonight... his sins would wait until the morrow to be punished. He settled into a warm bed next to his woman, deep in thought and contemplation. Glenda turned to him. "Andrew," she said, her voice meek and small. "We have created new life."
The words puzzled Andrew for a moment, caught him off guard. However, he finally grasped the fact that she was going to have a baby. He smiled. "Hopefully these times will pass before the child is born," he said. "I fear bringing something new into this world. I can barely survive in it."
"My love," she replied, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I fear too..." Her statement was vague, but more emotionally-charged than anything Andrew had ever heard her say. "But it is not the times I fear." She inhaled hard, trying to wipe a few tears from her face, before she continued: "I am more afraid of how much worse they can get."
Perplexed, Andrew turned from her to blow out the oil lamp next to his bed. Her face had taken on the features of a banshee's, distress and anxiety bringing out all the wrinkles and ugliness hiding beneath. He wished not to see her longer, for her emotions seemed to be emanating towards him from her gaze. "I don't know how much worse things could get, dear." His voice had become meek as well.
Glenda paused and released a deep sob. "I do... I do..." Her eyes and their glistening tears caught fragments of moonlight from their window. "The child... it may not be yours..." The words came out with the weight of a month of emotional wreckage sitting atop them.
Taking this in, Andrew thought. Who else? he asked himself. The statement had struck him like a hammer, stunning him momentarily. When he felt he could move again, he broke the silence by turning violently to grasp Glenda's neck. A wicked sound came from her throat as he choked her. "Who else?" he asked aggressively, though not yelling.
Glenda coughed, though she could just barely breathe. "I..." Her voice came out raspy. Andrew loosened his grip. "I do not know..." she said, seeming to press the words out rather than just vocalizing.
"How could you not know?!" Andrew propped himself up on all fours, using her neck mostly to keep his balance. All of his body weight pushed down through his straightened arm, closing her windpipe. Her face reddened, though he could not tell in the dim bluish-white moonlight. He released, screaming, "Tell me, or I will kill you right now!"
Her breaths came out in fast sobs, and she began to cry hard. The distraught Washington almost felt sorry for her. She finally said it, the thing that had been closing in around her heart for so long: "My father... I believe the child his."
The statement was like a repellent, pushing Andrew away from his wife in reviled anguish. "What?" he yelled, backing off of the bed onto his feet. "Your father?" He finally backed up far enough, running into his dresser across the room.
Her pain was greater than Andrew's, for no one had ever known of the relationship. They played everything off as him being abusive, though Garrett just had a penchant for roughness. The truth was, after Glenda's mother died, she had no choice but to love her father. That love built over the years into something much more. All of the years of playing a double-life--a false one in which Glenda hated her father, and another in which she loved him so much--had finally took its toll on her. She got up onto her knees on the bed, arms stretched forth towards Andrew. "I loved you both..." she said, with such effort put into her voice Andrew thought her possessed. "Now I can love neither. How can you take me in after you know of the horrible thing I have committed?" Her face was sincere, and glistened in its entirety with sweat and tears.
Horrified, her husband backed further into that dresser, and as if a divine answer had come to him, felt something as he placed his hands on its smooth oaken top. His emotions had taken so much damage that he knew not what to do... so his logic did it for him. The arm he used to shoot Garrett Remus had landed its palm on the gun he had used... and it was loaded. Without thinking, Andrew Washington pulled it from its belt holster and flung it forth, aiming in an instant and shooting his wife through the face.
Everything became clear to him. Her father had been found profoundly guilty by his own judgment, and thus he could not bring himself to shoot the other his daughter loved, lest he cause her more anguish. Knowing this, Andrew felt that his entire life had lead up to this one moment: one moment in which he would release two people from the terrors of leading a double-life, deceiving everyone along with themselves. He did not feel guilt, no... once again, Andrew Washington felt cool resolve flow over him.
User Reviews
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-08-27 21:05:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-08-26 23:42:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ilikesteak (user info) at 2007-08-26 20:15:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Great, another perfectly good user number gone to waste.
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2007-08-26 09:28:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
for some reason your user name made me think about those kevin smith DVDs that I watch with my flatmates when we're stoned, you know, the ones where he just talks shit.
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-08-26 02:26:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Sorry, Mr. Burns, but I don't go in for these backdoor shenanigans.
Sure I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious, but the answer is no!
-- Homer Simpson
Last Exit to Springfield
Submitted by PhillipTheGreat (user info) at 2007-08-25 20:04:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked this.
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2007-08-25 18:55:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Me? Yes... I'm a Dad.