The Child-Eaters' Society and Other Stories by Jacobs Fran

Author:Jacobs, Fran [Jacobs, Fran]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-04-22T07:00:00+00:00

A LONG DAY

There had been over a hundred of them at the cemetery for the funeral of David's nephew, James, but only thirty or so had come back to the house afterwards for the wake. They were the same people who had been at the funeral for Phil, James' father, just a few months earlier and the conversation was much the same as it had been then, too, only James' name now replaced Phil's. And it was hard, just as David had known it would be. He just hadn't known that it would be this hard. And now, as it approached the third hour of the wake, he was considering slipping away so that he could start to put this whole unpleasant mess behind him.

“How are you holding up, David?” a voice asked quietly. It belonged to a petite blonde, with large green eyes and a huge forehead, who had appeared in front of him. She was holding a small plate of untouched sausage rolls and crisps. David had met her before, she was a distant cousin of Rosa, James' unfortunate mother, but for the life of him he couldn't remember her name.

“I'm coping,” he said. “How's Rosa? I've not had much of a chance to speak with her.”

“Not well. She still hasn't gotten over losing her husband and now to lose her son . . . She's upstairs with the girls, resting.”

“Ah.”

The woman reached for a sausage roll, held it for a moment, then set it back. “I heard that the boy had been living with you . . .”

David nodded. “Yes. James took things hard after his Dad died, got in with the wrong crowd. Rosa thought he'd should come and stay with me, my wife and kids, for a while so that I could keep an eye on him. He was understandably messed up. My wife and I did our best, but he continued to run wild. There was nothing we could do.” He was rather proud of the sorrowful catch in his voice.

“Rosa said that she thought James was doing much better with you, that he'd gone back to college, was making friends . . .”

“I thought so too, I really did, but I guess he just got better at hiding it. I mean, why else would he have been found in that part of town?”

“That's true,” the woman said, nodding. “You know, four more boys were found dead in the same area in just the last few days.” She lowered he voice even further, glancing around, as though she thought she might be overheard telling him some big secret. “Well, bits of them at least. The six o’clock news said they had been dismembered and stray dogs had fed on the remains!'

“I know,” David said. “I saw it, too. It makes me worry about the world my boys are growing up into.”

“Oh, yes. You have two sons, I remember you telling me at Phil's funeral. Are they with your wife today? I noticed she wasn't here.

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.