Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Issue #8 by Annie Reed

Author:Annie Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WMG Publishing

It was midnight when Johnny led Doris out of the hotel and back to his father’s Chrysler. They sat in the front seat. not speaking for several minutes in the quiet, the stars so bright in the dark Ohio sky. Then his hands were around her waist, under her dress, cupping her breasts, his breathing heavy. He smashed his mouth against hers, pressing himself on top of her, a whiff of orchid as he crushed the blossom between them.

His skin was so hot against the chill of her own skin, so much life in him that it made her cry. That’s when she felt another tug against her body, the next pull away from this life, away from him and everything else she knew.

She ignored it, kissing him back, running her numbing hands into his shirt, across his chest and over his warm, warm flesh.

She was leaving him, she knew. The feeling left her fingertips, his skin more like clay now. Leaving this place, Luna Pier, leaving her family at last. She’d timed her exit as best as she could, taking the handfuls of aspirin until she’d taken in enough. Enough to end her life. And the horror in her belly.

Her spirit was disappearing with the night, dissolving in his arms. Johnny opened his eyes, seeing her faded form, and let out a cry of fear. Doris reached out to him, whispering to him that he’d be all right, that he’d go on just fine without her.

He tried to hold onto her, to keep her beside him, but she couldn’t undo what she’d done. She couldn’t undo her cowardly act anymore than her Momma could be honest with Daddy about her life or their golden child, Julia. Any more than Daddy could be honest with himself and what he’d done. If they’d just kept quiet and pretended long enough, then their lies would finally be true. Doris had only wanted Johnny.

She didn’t know if he’d have stayed with her when he found out she was pregnant and the coward in her hadn’t been strong enough to find out. She was no better than her family, she realized. She hadn’t given him a choice, just like her parents hadn’t given her a choice.

But he didn’t know about the baby. And when he did find out, it would kill him.

Another tug pulled her from his arms, casting her into a dark spiral that sent her back to her bedroom and the blue taffeta prom dress.

She was home again, on the twin bed, floating in and out of consciousness, her mother sobbing beside her. Still hiding all the secrets from the world for so long, but not this time.

Doris let out a gasp as pain tore through her stomach, imagining the paper’s headlines tomorrow. Pregnant Luna Pier Woman Kills Herself Before Prom. Hers would be the headline that told the truth, not lifetime of lies that her mother lived. Julia wasn’t Daddy’s child. Momma had gotten pregnant by someone else and let Daddy believe it was his—just as Julia had done to her husband (who didn’t know about Jimmy Geller).

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