Under a Cloudless Sky by Chris Fabry

Author:Chris Fabry [Fabry, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / General, FICTION / Small Town & Rural
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2018-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

Ruby’s lips were parched and her tongue swollen, she guessed from all the fluids rushing to her broken wrist. The dryness and arm pain were only eclipsed by the feeling she got listening to the music Kelly and Liz played. Every drumbeat and pluck of the bass guitar was a thump to her already-taxed aorta. Theirs was music you didn’t just hear, you felt down to the joints and marrow. The songs shook the walls and the metal roof of the trailer. She liked her Southern gospel loud, of course, but this was not “I’ll Fly Away” or “Mansion over the Hilltop.”

When the two came back to the trailer after going through her car, Ruby looked into their eyes. She had always believed the eyes were the windows to the soul, but if that were true, theirs needed a bucket of Windex. Both were dirty brown and cloudy. There was a hint that Kelly had convinced Liz not to harm Ruby more because Kelly called her “ma’am” when he spoke again. Ruby grunted loud enough for Kelly to pull the duct tape off her mouth. She told them her lips were as parched as the Sahara and when they didn’t give her anything to drink, Ruby became agitated. She demanded they let her go because she didn’t like driving in the dark. That’s when Liz turned on her and ordered Kelly to put her in the bedroom.

Kelly helped Ruby to her feet and stared at her wrist.

“I think it’s broke,” he said to Liz. “It’s puffed up and black-and-blue.”

“Put her in the bedroom,” Liz said again with a flick of the hand as though Ruby were no more than a stick of furniture that needed to be hauled away. Something they should’ve done with the furniture in their trailer—it all needed to be burnt, Ruby thought.

Kelly led her to a bare twin mattress that rested on a piece of plywood on top of cinder blocks. The mattress was stained with something brown at the bottom and she didn’t want to think of the last person who had fallen asleep here or where they might be buried. She sat, her arms still secured with the duct tape, on the opposite end from the stain. Ruby wondered what kind of mark the tape would leave when it was taken off. But maybe no one would ever see it anyway. The rain would make digging a hole in the wet ground much easier.

“You stay right here,” Kelly said.

“Can you take this off?” Ruby said softly, nodding at the duct tape on her wrists.

“No, just lay back. Try to rest.”

“Have you ever tried to rest with your arms in this position? I’m an old woman. I’ve got a cramp.”

Kelly frowned, then pulled out a pocketknife and cut the tape. Ruby yelped when he ripped the piece off her bad wrist. He leaned down and whispered, “Now you’ll stop complaining if you know what’s good for you.”

What was good for her now was a lot different than she’d thought twenty-four hours earlier.

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