2035 Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The blood trickled down my arm as I pulled the rope tight against the bedpost. I run my hands through the long, natted locks, staring into the eyes of a woman whom I had not seen in many years. Her mother stared from the wooden doorway, waiting for it to be safe to approach. Gi looked at me worryingly.

“This wasn’t what I had pictured in my head.” He said.

“Yeah, well, it's a blessing regardless,” I reply.

The woman thrashed against her restraints. “Let me go!” She screeched.

“Octavia, you need to chill the fuck out,” Gi says. “It's me, Gigi, and look, that’s daddy.” He continued. “You are home.”

“I have no home.” The woman hissed.

I sat beside her and started to sing.

Almost heaven

West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains

Shenandoah River

Life is old here

Older than the trees

Younger than the mountains

Blowing like the breeze.

Country roads

Take me home

to a place I belong

West Virginia Mountain Mama

Take me home

My country roads

All my memories

gather round her

Miner’s lady stranger to blue water

Dark and dusty painted on the sky

Whispy taste of moonshine

tear drop from my eye

Country roads take me home

to a place I belong

West virginia Mountain momma

Take me home

My country roads.

The woman calmed down as I stroked her hair and repeated the chorus.

Country roads take me home to a place where I belong, West Virginia Mountain Momma, take me home, my country roads.

I smiled at her as tears fell from my eyes and then hers.

I sang some more.

There are stars in the southern sky.

Southward as you go.

There is a taste of thyme, sweet and honey

down that seven bridges road.

Now I have loved you like a baby

like some lonesome child

And I have loved you in a tame way

and I have loved you wild

Sometimes there’s a part of me

that has to turn from here and go

running like a child from these warm stars

down the Seven Bridges Road

There are stars in the southern sky

And if ever you decide you should go

There is a taste of thyme, sweet and honey

down that seven bridges road

I was lost in a moment when she was a 6-month-old baby sitting on my knee, and I sang these same songs in her ear with the same voice while those same eyes looked at me and grabbed my nose.

I looked into those giant blue eyes and saw the tears streaming down her face.

She had not known peace in many years. Not the peace of quiet, but the peace of not being in control, but completely safe. Around someone who allows you to not be concerned with impressing others while performing. Someone who was in charge in every way a person can be in that moment. The peace that feels like a heavy blanket in a cold room that can protect you from the monsters under your bed.

Her mother came and placed a hand on my shoulder and sang with me.

They had never gotten along but had loved each other completely and fiercely. They were the yin and yang of the feminine. Both free spirits, but one completely wild and untamed, the other lost and reliant.

It was the softness that had kept me with her mother. Her mother needed me, and every bump or bruise, every little pain, was the end of the world. When she was giving birth,rth she cried every time. Even after 5 children, it was like she had never done it before. I always felt needed. Like I was a necessity to her, I would hold her hand through everything, whether self-inflicted or not.

Octavia would drive her up a wall constantly. She would curse and yell, scream, and throw things. I would step into a room, and she would turn into a blithering puppy dog and start crying about how everyone hated her. She was strong and wild. I took her to the river soon after she could walk and taught her to fish and swim. As she grew she would go deeper into the water till she was unable to reach the bottom and start getting taken down stream and i would rush in and rescue her. I would get her out, and she would say “thank you, daddy,” and immediately do it again.

The room went silent for a moment. I stood up and walked out as her mother took my place on the bed and placed her hand on her cheek.

I looked at Gi and motioned for him to come with me. He came, and I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “Let her mom have some time with her now that she is calm.”

We walk out, and I see Bella and Moon sitting in the hallway. “Shouldn’t y'all be in bed?” I ask.

Moon replied, “She was scared, so I came out here to protect her.”

“Hmm”, I grunted. “Well, no better protector for my Bella than a Valkyrie, I guess,” I say, looking at Bella. “Why are you scared, baby?”

“Well, she was screeching and yelling, and everyone was in there, and I saw you brought in rope, and I had no idea what was going on.” She stammered.

“Well, baby, I had to get your sister settled in. I just found her outside earlier tonight,” I tell her. “It is safe if you want to go see her.”

“Stay outside just in case,” I whispered to Gi.

He nodded, took their hands, and led them into the room.

Octavia saw Bella and immediately had a strange look on her face. “She is dead, how?” She asked.

“Long story, a lot has happened recently,” Anne replied.

“There was a lot that led to you being here right now,” Gi spoke up.

“What is he talking about, Mom?” Octavia asked.

“You can get caught up on the whos and whys tomorrow, just get some rest for the night,” Anne said, standing up, pushing the girls out of the room.

Ann turned on the wall TV and asked for waves lapping on a beach, and switched off the lights. Gi exited the room and closed the door behind him.

I sat at the kitchen table recounting the day’s events as Mike came through the kitchen door.

“Yo, there’s a dude who killed his wife sitting in the shed who needs to be dealt with. You want me to handle it, or you wanna do it?” I ask him.

“Shit, man, I just got here, we already executing people?” He replies.

“I wanted to spare Gi the extra body and face he's gonna have to see in a few years in his sleep,” I explain.

“You look beat, man, you ok?” He asks.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, son. There's a reason I didn’t want this gig.” I told him.

“Have you ever seen Obama or George Bush before and after pictures?” I asked him.

“Yeah, they aged like 20 years in 8.” He replied.

“Fame doesn’t sit comfortably on anyone’s shoulders, and there are some for whom it doesn’t sit at all,” I spoke.

“Who said that?” He asked.

“Mick Jagger,” I tell him.

“You ever hear that they caught Rod Stewart sucking off Mick Jagger?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think it was one of their wives who caught them.” I tell him, “Does it really sound strange when you see how they dressed and acted?”

“All the leotards and spandex. Make up and hands on their hips with the long hair.” He said.

“I never understood why females found obviously gay dudes attractive,” I said.

I put my coat on and grabbed my shotgun. “Come on., I tell him.

“Yeah, wild shit man, these were sex symbols, gay British dudes who were coked out of their minds prancing like women on stage.” I continued as we walked over to the stage.

I open the door and see the man lying on the floor handcuffed to the pole.

I light a cigarette and cock my shotgun.

“Straight degenerates, man. You ever see the guys from guns and roses just turning up bottles of vodka as they water?” he asked as I shot the guy twice.

“I fucking feel you like you're rich, why are you drinking like a fucking hobo?” I say uncuffing the guy and dragging him to the bed of the truck outside.

“Man, I get depression, you remember I was lost for a while,” he says.

“Yeah, but like what, oh, you're alone because you're rich and famous, so you need to get drunk as fuck all day and night?” “That shit doesn’t make any sense,” I tell him.

We hop in the truck and head to the river. “God damn this steering wheel is cold,” I say, hitting the key.

“Should have brought gloves,” he says.

“How imma shoot with gloves on?” I ask?

We unload the body into the river.

“Fame is probably hard,” he says.

“Probably is. But harder than this?” I ask him to watch the body float downstream in the chunks of ice.

“Fuck if I know I aint famous.” He says.

“Yeah, but we're infamous,” I reply.