I didn't do the dishes.
I couldn't make my dad stay on the line, so I left the dishes everywhere. In the sink. On the counter. Spread across the waxy table top as if the soup bowls might catch a better signal than the antenna on the roof. It was my way of finding evidence of a life other than mine. A life that crawled the kitchen at two in the morning, frying eggs and leaving the blood to harden on the spatula.
A life that went weeks without seeing his daughter.
Mom wasn't around to clean up the mess anymore. Not since he asked her to clean up mine and she screamed "No!" in our faces. Overnight my dishes multiplied. My crumbs doubled and tripled until we weren't just feeding ourselves, and when I slunk down the stairs on a Sunday, to see the week-long castle we'd built, I felt less lonely.
Occasionally, I'd clean it. But usually, I left it until I was eating cereal out of coffee mug and he was forced to post a note on the fridge:
Dishes please.
Dad
Somehow, his notes made me worse. The tunnels doubled and the trains ran faster under my skin.
On that morning, the morning the fourth dead girl was found, it was mid-summer. I was in the kitchen, sweating in my cotton shorts and braless in my handmade tank top, watching mice perform on the counter: tiptoeing on the high-wire edge to nibble the toast from Wednesday. A swollen black fly hummed along, building suspense as it darted from one jaundice blood smear to another. A breeze tattooed the lintel with the loose porch door. I crumpled Dad's note and dropped it on the linoleum. I walked away from the phone.
I've since wondered—in the movie theater, in the backseat of an NPD cruiser—how things might have been if I'd decided to stay home that Sunday and cleaned, instead of driving myself and my Christ foul mood to Rick's Roadhouse. But I pulled on my scabbed combat boots anyway, and snatched an oversized flannel from the coat closet. My dad's crusty pick up was in the backyard, and I trotted off the porch steps with my laces free and my open shirt stretching its wings.
3. MENU
Lunch and Dinner
Hamburger............................$2.00
Cheese Burger.......................$2.35
Hot Dog.................................$2.00
Chicken Sandwich................$3.29
Steak and Potatoes..............$4.99
Meatloaf................................$3.99
Grilled Cheese.......................$1.49
French Fries...........................$1.99
Slaw.......................................$0.50
Breakfast
Roadhouse Special...............$4.99
2 Eggs 3 Bacon or 2 Sausage Hash Browns and Toast
Eggs and Toast......................$2.00
Short Stack............................$2.00
Full Stack...............................$3.00
Bacon, Sausage or Ham........$1.99
Coffee on the house.
Beer 12oz...............................$4.25
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Take Away the Saints
Short StoryThis anthology will collect noir and hard-boiled style stories from some of Wattpad's brightest authors, as well as some up-and-comers that I think we'll be seeing a lot of in the future. This dark group will spread their stories across several diff...
Life on Mars : Ch. 1-5 || Robyn Marie
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