Broken Shells by Michael Patrick Hicks

Author:Michael Patrick Hicks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Michael Patrick Hicks

CHAPTER NINE

ANTOINE HAD NEVER wanted to go home so badly. Too often, he’d felt the opposite and home was the last place he wanted to be. The number of times he thought about going elsewhere, of just leaving with whatever clothes he had on his back and disappearing into the night, was too high to count. Although he always went home at the end of the day, each time it was with a measure of regret. He would approach his apartment door knowing it was only a matter of time before he left Channy and Helix, and maybe after he was out of both of their lives, the weight he carried would lift from his bowed shoulders.

Most nights, he came home to a crying baby, Channy just sitting there, smoking. She would tell him, before he even had the door closed and locked behind him, before he even had a chance to get his shoes off, “You need to empty the dishwasher. There’s laundry needs doing, too.”

She would sit there, arms folded across her chest, a cigarette pinched between her fingers. Telling him what needed doing and that he needed to do it. As if he weren’t the one working and bringing in the money, and still having nothing at all to show for it. As if he’d been the one home all day long, smoking like a chimney and doing fuck all else.

Yeah, I need to do all that, he’d think. Maybe he was pussy whipped, or maybe he had simply gotten too comfortable being under her thumb…and she had certainly gotten awfully comfortable keeping that thumb pressed down on him, that was for sure. However, he also knew that if he did not do those things, they wouldn’t get done at all. Dishes would pile up, and the floor would be covered in dirty clothes.

On those rare nights when he had the energy to argue, they’d fight. They’d accuse each other and drum up makeshift lists of who did what to try to prove who was the real contributor at the home front, and, later, after the blood rage had died down, they’d both promise to do better and be better. Nothing would change, though, not in the long run. For a few days following, they would make minor efforts before slipping back into the rut of ease that had defined much of their relationship. Then it would start all over, with Antoine being back at square one regretting damn near every decision in his whole damn life that had led to him and Channy hooking up and bringing a baby into the world. He would start thinking about leaving again, which would force Channy to maybe get a job. Helix wouldn’t have a father, not a real one anyway, but at least Antoine wouldn’t have to listen to all the crying.

The few times Antoine had been left alone with Helix had been rough. The kid was forceful, even though he was only a little baby. Sixteen pounds of determination, that kid.

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