Do letters cry? Jody certainly did. She heard how the sky turned black as the bullets rained down on her husband’s battalion. Could regret be written in soil where her husband lay? Regret certainly soiled her cheeks.
She read the two letters again and again. One stated that he died courageously. The other was for her? Then with Maurice in toe she walked to Alice’s place next door.
She threw the letter at Alice. She told of how Alex died. They couldn’t find his face. It was burned to blackness thanks to the napalm. What was he thinking to send her a letter of devotion and good bye to her house, but addressed to Alice? It was a grievous mistake, wasn’t it?
As Alice cried, Jody unpacked her basket and took out a glass container of clear liquid. She calmly unscrewed the cap and threw the liquid into Alice’s face. As skin and flesh burned and melted like clay on a hot day, Jody thought of the letter.
The letter made her cry hard. Not because it made her miss him, but because it reeked of betrayal. It was not addressed to her. It was addressed to Alice.
Alice and her screams made her laugh. She laughed and laughed at the ludicrousness of it all, and the pettiness of it, too.
Jody was still hearing the screams as she whispered sweet nothings into Maurice’s tender ear as she coaxed him to swallow a cyanide pill.
She kissed his lips hard suffocating him while wondering what it was like to die. Maurice’s eyes glazed over, his heart started beating too fast, and he breathed his last.
It wasn’t the climax she was hoping for. What greeted her was disappointment as she tasted it on his last breath. It was a flavour she was well used to.