In Sickness and in Hell: A Collection of Unusual Stories by Stefan Barkow

Author:Stefan Barkow [Stefan Barkow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Dark Fiction, Folklore, Philosophy, Short Stories, Collections & Anthologies
ISBN: 9780692288337
Google: 56jRoQEACAAJ
Amazon: 0692288333
Barnesnoble: 0692288333
Goodreads: 23359367
Publisher: FoxBo Books
Published: 2014-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

Jen, Now

Linda stirred her tea and tried to decide how best to surprise her son Erik with the news. The wrinkles around her eyes softened as she appraised her son sitting across from her at the kitchen table. It was Sunday morning, and he had picked her up from church for breakfast at her house just like he had done every Sunday since he had accepted a job in Newgan and moved back into town.

Erik’s face was obscured by the newspaper he was studying, but Linda didn’t need to see him to know that on the other side of the grey pages his expression was just the same as it had been a decade ago, when he used to fan his high school textbooks across this very same wooden table and pore over them. Yes, he’d be there studying and she’d be washing dishes behind him or talking on the phone with Beth, because Beth still lived next door back then. And in the study Rick, Linda’s husband, would be in his chair, rocking himself with his foot and reading a novel of some sort or another. She always said he’d die in that chair one day; she’d been wrong in the end. But that was two years ago now.

“Erik,” she began, “something interesting happened at work just this last Friday.”

Erik sighed, wrangling with the newspaper until it gave in and folded up. His brown eyes met hers. “What’s her name?” he asked, his tone mockingly patient.

“What?”

“Mom, you work in the community center. Not once have you brought up your job of your own volition since I’ve been back in Newgan—not once!” he continued over her noise of protest “except when it has had something to do with a girl you want me to meet. And date, and marry, and give you some grandchildren; preferably a granddaughter who I’ll name Mary, after your mother.

“So out with it, Mom. I’m twenty-seven and I’m not getting any younger. She my age this time? Or out of college at least?” He said it all with a good-natured grin. Linda shouldn’t have kidded herself that she could surprise him, as this discussion wasn’t exactly breaking new ground.

Dropping her pretense of indignation, Linda allowed herself to smile back. “Rick was eight years older than me when he and I got married, you know.”

“Yes, Mom, I know that. But Dad was thirty-six, which is not the same as twenty-seven and nineteen.”

“Alright, alright. But that one was very cute, you can’t deny the truth of that.”

“Hmph. I bet you can’t even remember ‘that one’s’ name, can you?”

Outside, the full green leaves rustled on the branches as an April wind rolled through the Midwestern town. In the fall, the citizens would be electing their first town manager because the town had grown so much in the last few years.

“Well.” Linda said, “Fine. I may not remember that one, but I know this one.”

Erik got up and went to the sink to pour the last of his coffee out. He rinsed out the blue mug.

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