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“What? Thank you. You didn’t have to do all of this for—”
“Her birthday. We get it,” I said coming up to her. I glared at him telling him to leave. Hoping there was some…any redeemable quality about him. Sadly, there was not.
“It’s your birthday? I’m so sorry your loss—”
“SHUT UP!” I hollered at him.
And he jumped but she didn’t as she read the letter attached to the flowers. “Sorry for your loss? What loss?”
She looked up between us.
It was then that the fool, the inconsiderate intrusive ass of a human being, realized what he’d done. He looked to me for help and I had none to offer. Instead I wanted to kick him down the stairs hard enough to ensure that he never got back up.
“Malachi?”
I looked to her and the fear in her eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. The flowers dropped from her hand as she ran. She ran towards the couch and reached for the remote control I doubt I’d ever touched and turned on the television.
“Esther—”
“Breaking News: IPN has just confirmed that Alfred Benjamin Noëlle, the famed screenwriter, director, and filmmaker, of such movies as Rise Son Rise and The Father of the Faithless, and longtime civil rights activist, passed away this morning at the age of seventy-three—”
“Ugh.”
She shook.
She took a step back and stretched out her hands switching between the channels in the hopes that it would somehow change the news. And when she realized that each channel held his name with the numbers 1944-2017 under his name and on his pictures the sound that came from her body as she tilted forward didn’t sound human.
“AHH! UGH! AHH! OGHH!” She screamed until she wasn’t strong enough to hold herself up any longer.
She screamed as she fell to the ground and I grabbed her as I tried to hold back my own tears but it was like trying to hold on to fire. Still I didn’t let go even as she hit me.
“You knew!” She screamed trying to break away. “YOU KNEW!
She slapped and smacked and dug her nails into me and I was more worried that she’d hurt herself so I let go and she ran. She ran towards the door and out into the white of the snow.
“Esther!” I called as I ran after.
She was at the bottom of the stairs when I got outside. David, the devil himself, was already at his car, unwilling to do anything because he was a coward.
“Esther!” I called once more as she slipped on the snow and ice-covered path while running towards the cabin. She picked herself up but slipped once more before she made it inside.
“GET OUT!” She grabbed the first thing she could, which was her lamp beside the couch and threw it at the door. I ducked and the light bulb exploded as it hit the ground behind me, leaving only the metal part intact.
“Esther—”
“Stop calling my name!” She wiped her face as she grabbed her purse, and threw her things inside. “You knew! That’s why you were being so nice! You knew! And you wanted me to just…how did you know?”
She paused. Her face was covered in tears and her hair was sticking through her hands. Her brown hands were now red and bleeding from her fall. But she didn’t look at me.
“I woke you up. I was with you up until we went to get ready. But you’ve been acting odd since you woke up…my grandfather? Did he call you? Did he say something to you last night?”
“No.”
“STOP LYING! Ahh!” She screamed again as she put one hand over her chest and the other over her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she looked to me. “You’re lying. How did you know? Why aren’t you shocked? He was… perfectly fine! This is some kind of mistake! There has to be a mistake—”
“He…was sick.” My voice cracked but I pushed on. “He’s been sick for a while. He didn’t want you to see him…die.”
“Stop talking.” She lifted her hand up to me. Her eyes seemed darker, hollow, as she stared back at me. She was a silent for almost a two full minutes before she spoke again. “You never had a book for me,” she whispered to herself. “I’m here…not to help you but so…so…ugh…he could…he…he could die alone? Is that what you’re saying to me?”
