Hellgoing Stories by Lynn Coady

Author:Lynn Coady
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc.
Published: 2013-06-27T21:00:00+00:00

THE LAST TIME she spoke with her brother Wayne, he explained to her why it didn’t matter that people were disappearing from the street. He said it was part of God’s plan.

“I don’t think it’s part of God’s plan,” she replied.

“Well, what would you know about God’s plan,” said Wayne.

This is how they talked to each other. There were no particularly nuanced arguments, no fine points to be made.

“What do you know about God’s plan,” Sara jeered back at him.

“More than you,” Wayne answered. Wayne had a blackboard in his apartment, Sara imagined, like a football coach would have. There was a line drawn down the middle in chalk. On one side of the blackboard was written The Wayner and on the other side, Stupid Hippie. And every time Wayne came back with a zinger like “more than you,” a mark went under The Wayner and then he sat back, satisfied, licking the chalk from his fingers.

“It’s God’s plan,” Sara exclaimed, like she was starting to understand. “I get it, I get it, the women are the chosen ones! It’s been them all along! They’ve been called! They’ve left us all behind!”

Wayne sighed his disgust. “You pretend,” he said, “to be stupid, and say stupid things when you know the truth as well as I do. I’ve never understood why you do that. It doesn’t make you seem smart, if that’s what you think.”

“They’re whores,” said Sara. She stood and carried the phone with her to look out the window at her pansies.

“Yes.”

“God is cleansing us of them.”

“Yes.”

“Just like the bombs. On the heathen cities. Right?”

“That’s right.”

“But all women on the outside are whores.” Sara was babbling again, almost gleeful. “Yes? Right? And everyone outside Eden is a heathen. So why aren’t we all disappearing? Why isn’t the city burning around me? Where is the angry hand, reaching down to smite?”

She was leaning forward, grinning hard, as if Wayne were there in the apartment with her. But if Wayne were there, she knew she’d never talk like this.

He waited an insolent moment before answering.

“I left — and you know I left — because I didn’t believe all that bullshit. I’m not a fanatic.”

Shriek. She could almost hear the chalk against the board.

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