Archive for the ‘Luc Reid’ Category
At the Roots of the Big Oak
Friday, December 10th, 2010
Rose looked all around the little meadow and listened intently. It was safe, for the moment. She sat in the grass among the roots of a big oak and held out her hands to her two little girls.
“All right, my little bunnies,” she said, wrapping one arm around each of them as they came to her. “What story do you want today?”
“The one about the lady in the garden who could never find the rabbits!” said the elder girl, squirming close. The younger pushed the hair out of her face and copied the squirm. “About the lady and the garden!” she confirmed.
“Again?”
The girls nodded, grinning.
“All right. Well, once there was a lady gardener who grew the most beautiful lettuces anyone had ever tasted. The spinach in her garden–”
There was a noise. She stopped, listening. The girls froze in place. The sound came closer: footsteps
*
Old Mike pushed through pine branches to step out into the meadow. He was sure he’d heard a woman’s voice again, though there wasn’t another house around for a dozen miles. Over by the big oak, the grass shuddered as a little group of rabbits bolted away.
Silver Box
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
Carlo kissed Becca on the forehead and squeezed her hand as the bus pulled up. She smiled at him, and he smiled back so brightly, the light seemed to shine out of his whole face. As he climbed onto the bus, he waved, and then the doors closed and it pulled away.
Becca practically danced as she made her way down the sidewalk toward work. She had never imagined it could be possible to give her heart so freely, so easily, but she trusted Carlo, and Carlo trusted her.
Seeing Carlo off had made her a few minutes late, and she decided to cut through an alley that came out right across the street from where she worked. Stepping from the May sunlight into the dirty shadows of the alley she shivered, but the aftereffects of Carlo’s kiss still radiated through her body, and she kept up her elated pace. Then someone grabbed her.
She didn’t even see him at first: the man just grabbed her from behind and jerked her down onto the grimy pavement behind a trash bin. A minute later he was on top of her, a knife held out in warning, pushing up her dress.
She should have been frightened, but instead she was furious. How dare he! Carlo would rip his eyeballs out if he were here. Her attacker lifted his body off her dress for a moment, and Becca took the opportunity to drive one knee up with all the anger and power she could muster into his crotch. He jolted as though he’d been shocked, and his knife hand jerked reflexively and plunged into her chest, just to the right of her sternum. She gasped. He whimpered, pulled himself up, and stumbled away as fast as he could, still clutching his injured privates.
Becca pulled the knife out of her chest and threw it away as she sat up. Her dress, nearly new and worn specially to impress Carlo, was ruined–ripped and filthy, with a slightly bloody hole over the right breast. She picked up her purse and opened it nervously, taking out the silver box she kept there and lifting the lid. Carlo’s heart undamaged, beating steadily in its silken padding. She breathed a sigh of relief.