Journey of Shadows: a Fast-Paced Mystery Where Time is the Enemy by Perdue Frank A

Author:Perdue, Frank A. [Perdue, Frank A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2014-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Having grown up in Chicago I’d heard all the stories about Aaron Small, and I wasn’t anxious to cross paths with him. Ask anyone who knew him even remotely and they would describe him as a good-looking blue-eyed devil with a violent temper, or words to that effect.

Rumor had it that his father had hanged himself rather than endure the constant harassment of the man’s wife. The old man had been a mild-mannered haberdasher who was forced to marry a younger woman whom he had deflowered. The result was a six pound baby boy whom they named Aaron, because the mother liked the name. Aaron’s father would never argue with his wife. She was larger than him, and stronger, of big-boned Norwegian stock. Neighbors of theirs, in a poor neighborhood on the south side of Chicago would tell of hearing them fight. Hers was the loudest voice. He often showed up at work with cuts and bruises on his face where she supposedly had hit him.

It was surprising that together they produced another offspring, a girl. There was no way the Smalls could handle bringing up another child in that environment. With prodding from the State, she was adopted out when she was three months old. Aaron had taken to the little baby, and was crushed when she was escorted away. He vowed to find her someday.

Finally Aaron’s father could take no more physical and mental abuse, and one day in the back room of his shop, he climbed on a chair, tied a rope to a beam, and with the other end fashioned into a noose around his neck, he jumped.

Aaron was seven years old when he wandered into his father’s shop, and found the man, still swinging from the rope.

He couldn’t go home after that. He was found a day later panhandling on a street corner for food money. He cried, and threatened to run away again if he was returned to his mother. The police were sympathetic, but their hands were tied. The law would not let them do anything other than send him back.

With no husband with whom to take out her anger, she transferred her wrath to the boy, beating him at the slightest provocation.

Aaron himself became a bully at school after a growth spurt that placed him above many of the other boys physically. By the time he was sixteen, the authorities had had enough, and he was transferred to the boy’s home where he met Chris Ellison. His mother had pleaded with the court to release her from her guardianship of such an unruly boy.

By the time Aaron Small reached puberty he despised all females, young and old, except his sister. He stared at every young female he thought to be about her age, looking for similarities that might identify her, but to no avail. She seemed to be lost to him forever.

Since he couldn’t stand to be around other girls his age, he masturbated almost daily to relieve the sexual stress he felt.

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