Big Green Country : A Novel by Frances Rivetti

Author:Frances Rivetti [Rivetti , Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-11-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Marcus

Maggie made the call to Luna, Bridget’s friend from the dispensary. She came for Bridget less than an hour after I’d broken the news. It was Bobby’s body I had identified. Life is too easily stolen from the best of us. Jesus. I’ve been witness to this more times than any one man should be forced to recount. I don’t expect I will ever in my whole life shake off the recurring visual of raw flesh and severed limbs; way too many army comrades blasted by machine gun on some godforsaken desert goat path. Since I’m no longer at war, except for the shit storm in my head, Bobby’s swollen body was way tougher for me to deal with in a way. I freely admit I struggled to maintain composure seeing him like that, fresh from his watery grave. And yet I held myself together, though I almost lost it several times, standing there in that fucking ice-cold morgue staring at my barely recognizable best buddy.

I figured it was high time to off-load Bridget from the lethal expedition we were on. I was sick to my stomach to pull the plug on her last drop of hope that Bobby had somehow clung on to solid ground. I let her know it came over him real fast, the floodwater, taking him down at shoulder level with such violent force he’d been under in a mere couple seconds.

The coroner had been somewhat delicate in his manner despite having given me the graphic details pretty much straight up. The fella deduced I was able to handle it, I guessed. “It’s the sudden intake of water flooding the sinuses that proves fatal, I’m sorry to say,” he’d explained while my knees turned to jelly.

My one and only true friend, my brother for all intents and purposes, lay there in that cold morgue, waxy, frozen solid — distorted, his arms folded across his bloated stomach, his eyelids fat and closed tight like a marble figurine laid out on top of one of those ancient stone caskets I’ve seen in magazine pictures of cathedrals in far-off lands.

My last impression of Bobby was of his feet — blown up like surgical gloves, black and blue, like balloons. Ten sausage toes all messed up and bloody from being scraped along the rocky bank in the deadly current.

I knew then it was me and me alone who was gonna have to man up, step it up big time — for Bobby. I owed him. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for the guy, for his family, for Bridget, Maggie, Mia. Bobby never asked for much. I knew if he coulda risen up and asked something of me from his bed of stone, my being there for his womenfolk was what it’d be. And I’ll do it gladly, if they’ll have me.

Bridget freaked when I broke the news, as I fully expected she would, throwing up and wailing in turns, her face devoid of its last trace of color. The woman was in need of rest and medical care.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.