Skip to main content

Soul Stealers

There just wasn't any reason to hold him longer, so Tommy was released from the jail two days short from the end of October. The skies threatened rain, but the sun, a bright orb, was up for the battle against the steely grey. Tommy was waiting outside of the gates smoking the cigarette the lady guard, Bonnie, had palmed him on his way out. 'Fuck, kid, calm down. Most kids are excited to be leaving here.' She shook her head at him.
Poor fucking kid.

Tommy didn't really want to leave the jail. He liked it there. At least better than home. In jail, he had food every day and his body felt good. There was lots of time to think in jail and that was good too. He wanted a different future, one that didn't include Momma.
"Thanks for coming to get me, Momma", he still said, When she pulled herself out of the backseat of the taxi. She fussed with her hair; a brighter blonde than he had seen on her before.
"What a bunch of bastards, Tommy," she declared, as she threw herself around him, "We can sue."
"Yeah, Momma," he whispered, pushing her away, "I don't think so."
Tommy looked at her as though she were crazy. And Momma flinched. "Let's just go home," she said.
Tommy stared out the window, as they drove through the country roads. It was so nice to see trees, and houses, and cars again. He wanted to ask the driver if he could roll down his window; just to feel the air, but he did not want to make anyone else cold. It had been cold every day in jail.
Momma soon started again. "If we sue, we can talk about deplorable conditions. I am sure everything was terrible there, wasn't it, Tommy? Besides just falsely arresting you....."

Inmates pissed on everything they could. In the corner of their cells for the hell of it Most of the prisoners would not drink the coffee, but Tommy wouldn't eat the eggs or potatoes either. He knew they were powdered mixes.
(More)
It had been bad.

But Tommy just snorted out a laugh at her, "Momma, quit showing-off to cab drivers." And that had shut her up real quick.
When they were home at the entrance of the apartment building, she grabbed him by the back of his shirt, "Just get in the fucking house, Tommy," and she added, words of no thought tumbling out of her mouth; just anger. "Since you think you are a big man now, you need to start carrying your weight. And since you are mostly a good-for-nothing, I don't see how else you can come into some money to support yourself. Because that's what men do. Support themselves. So, you'll have to sue. I'm not gonna keep paying for ya.""
"Momma, all I want to do is go home and go to sleep in my bed..."
"You don't have a bed anymore," Momma said. "Until you pay some rent, you got the couch."

There was nothing for dinner that night. "Men feed themselves," she told him.

"Where are you going?" Momma asked Tommy, an hour later, when he started to put on his shoes.
"Out."
"Where?"
"Men don't need to tell people where they are going," Tommy spit and slammed the front door behind him.

His footsteps slapped the slick sidewalk, the rain came when the moon climbed higher than the sun. He kept walking anyway. He did not want to go back to Momma's. Not yet. It was after 11 o'clock when he sneaked his way down the familiar driveway.
But Minnie would not answer Tommy's raps on the window. Not even when he drummed out her favorite Judas Priest song.

He heard the car behind him and knew who it was without looking.
"Out looking for new victims?", the cop sneered; rolling down his window.
"Hey, man," Tommy answered, "I'm not looking for any trouble here."
And he kept on walking on.



*Needs to get here
-Not even in a free country were their acts tolerated
*Last Edit
February 2nd

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Village Itself

Across the road from my home is an apartment building. It is made of brown brick and has three stories. It also has plenty of windows I often forget about while I go about my daily and nightly routines. I also forget my curtains are white, lacey and see-through scraps purchased from an aisle in Wal-Mart. Fifteen apartments. That may all house people with binoculars. It was the muggiest night this past summer had owned. Brenda was down for a visit and when she comes, it usually means a night spent over on my couch for her. Brenda lives in another town. It was one in the morning, no sleep to be found between the two us. We sat slouched on my front porch trying to capture the occasional breeze offered, sucking it deep into our lungs, praying it would cool us down. Our glasses of Pepsi sweated warning us how warm the drink would taste in our mouths. "Tilly! Tilly!" the shout sat our spines straight as we looked across the street to the where the sound was coming fr...

Rosy Cheeks

My son's circle and lined wall, created with the permanent red marker, became something he liked to show-off. I guess the other kids who come here liked it, too.   I guess he wanted to show-off more. That is one of the many hypothesis I have about how the Map of Africa came to be. I just keep hoping my kid is some kind of odd little genius.  On the morning I discovered the map of Africa, I was not speechless and I could breathe. "What is this?" I demanded. And loudly. My son shrugged his shoulders. "I like it. It's nice. Took a long time." He had chipped paint off the wall. His walls are white. That morning, it was discovered his room used to be beige.   And it was starting to look like a room in an abandoned house. I thought to myself that maybe this look would be the in thing  20 years from now and he could make millions. He could be a visionary. It was a good enough excuse for me to leave the room. I used it...

..What Are You Waiting For?

She had a real calm smile; it took its time creeping up into her eyes. And there she was looking up at me. She was sitting, right down there on the sidewalk, up against the wall of the bank. Her hand was wrapped around a red pen; buried into a magazine. And I was walking by her. Her eyes were brown. I did not smile back at her. One can never be too sure about anyone who is downtown. A few days later; it was grey and chilly, and I saw her again. With the same simple smile; this time growing into recognition. She stood just inside the entrance way of the video store, ducked, despite the fact she was barley five feet tall and the doorway was at least ten. Funny girl, I thought. Her smile passed by quickly, and then she bent her head down, to the inside of another magazine. She took a long, lipstick drag off a cigarette. "What are you doing?" she asked, when I was passing by her a day and a half later. And I stopped my step, for I was truly stumped. I looked down at my br...