Lumps
With a deep sigh he breathed in the silence. A slight creak from beneath his chair opened his lids for a moment. But he quickly decided that it was merely one of the house’s natural sounds that he’d never heard until now. He swirled his snifter in his palm.
It had been a long day of reassuring smiles and too-long hugs with Mary’s parents. They had paid him a “check-in” visit without calling. He’d been cataloguing his collection of novels when he saw them heading up the sidewalk, he quickly paused the
How are you holding up, sweetheart? A hug. You’re the only one who feels this loss as deeply as we do. Another hug. Oh you poor, thing, is this what’s passing for lunch these days? A sad look at Mary’s father and then another hug.
Becky’s dating a new guy. She always envied her sister for snatching a good guy like you up so quickly, and who knows maybe this is him.
Oh look at this menu, is it any wonder Mary’s stomach was so sensitive. Just look at all these fried foods. She closed the menu and this time spoke in the tone that actually required a response.
“Did the doctors ever call you back with more conclusive evidence about what happened to her?”
There was a slight pause. “They just keep telling me that she had a stomach disorder and that she must have gotten a hold of some bad meat or fish or something, and the two working together were too much for her.”
You know, the girl I buy all my jewelry from? You know at those parties they have? She said her uncle died in a very similar way.
Mary’s father peered through his bifocals at the menu, then pocketed his glasses and began to gaze around the restaurant.
Mary’s mother spent the rest of the afternoon regaling him with the recent news of Mary’s relatives, who he had never been able to keep straight. As he returned to his home, he removed his sweater with a low moan and went to hang it on the hooks that sat beside the hall mirror. He stopped for a moment and looked at it hanging alone there and looking down he realized all the other coats had fallen off their hooks onto the floor. This hadn’t happened before, and he tried to remember if he’d slammed the door. He picked up the coats and neatly placed them back on the hooks.
Within an hour he’d built a fire and was sitting in his high back chair getting lost in the flames when a thought occurred to him. He jumped from his chair and ran to the black lacquer entertainment center which was always bigger than he wanted it to be. He flung open a side cabinet that revealed at least a hundred
The fire burned with stranger colors, but was sweeter with her Julia Roberts comedies and Bruce Willis action films fueling it. As he sat imagining the nagging he wouldn’t have to hear, out of the corner of his eye he saw movement beneath the carpet. He cocked his head and waited for a moment thinking it a mouse. Quietly he rose out of his chair and crept over for a closer look. The carpet was still, but on the other end of the room, a nightstand rocked enough to make the lamp atop teeter precariously. He dashed toward the lamp steadying it. He looked beneath the table, inspecting the legs, pulling the carpet up from underneath, but there was nothing. He’d have to call the exterminator in the morning. He stepped astride his chair and took one last sip of his drink, turned off the lights and went to bed. After he’d left the room, a framed photograph was bucked from the mantelpiece and crashed to the marble apron in front of the fireplace.
The lump headed for his wife’s dresser, and this time, the lump shrank down beneath the corner. There was a pause until the lump grew again so fast that it lifted the dresser from the back and threw it forward. Drawers opened briefly until the dark oak bureau hit the flour with a thunderous thud and slammed them shut again.
The hallway lump was bumping its way closer to him. He had to get down those stairs. Suddenly, he remembered the bedpost in his hand. He lifted it above his head with both hands and brought it crashing down onto the top step. He found his target and with a quick shriek the lump burst into a bluish-grey spatter staining the carpet and the walls on either side. He stepped onto that top stair, his bare feet squishing in the remains of his first victim and he swung again. Once he’d mashed his way down four stairs
He dialed 911, but even before the connection had been made he hung up. What would he tell them? Was he going crazy? Was this just a dream? Was this part of the post-traumatic stress of discovering his wife’s lifeless body?
As he set the phone back on the receiver, he heard noise above him. Looking up he saw the lumps were streaking down the wall paper. Not with the blind clumsiness of the other lumps he’d seen, but with direct and speedy force. The largest one was directly above him and as it forced its way behind the phone, the phone popped off the wall and launched right into
His eyes flew open a few hours later as the phone rang him awake. His head pounded but he was alert and quickly scanned the floor and walls for his adversaries. Then, it struck him that the phone’s ringing was coming from the wall. The phone was back in it’s appropriate place. He stood warily and answered.
“Hello?”
“
“Um… yes.”
“I’m so sorry sweetheart, I just wanted to ask you if it’d be alright if I stopped by to pick up a few personal pictures of Mary’s. I’m making a scrapbook of her life as a part of my coming to terms with the loss and I know she has some pictures from her childhood.”
“Uh… yeah, I guess that’d be fine.”
“Okay, well I’ve gotta run some errands, so I’ll be over in an hour or so.”
“Okay. Bye.”
He hung up the phone and began to lightly tread through his house looking for his new house guests or any evidence of their activity, but he found none. The dresser had been restored. The photos and personal items were back on walls and tables. The carpets were all tightly tacked down. He replaced the bed post which was still laying in the kitchen floor, and he nursed the bruise the phone had given him.
He went to sit in his high-back chair to collect his thoughts, but before his weight was even completely situated in the leather, he caught sight of something laying directly in front of the fireplace. It was a picture frame that had a photo of his wife. He recognized the frame, but the glass was shattered and the photo was, in fact, gone.
Mary’s parents. His mother-in-law peered through the window and waved perkily. He quickly scanned the house looking for the lumps, half hoping half dreading that they’d make an appearance for his in-laws. He opened the door and the noise began.
Good morning, sweetheart. Oh, what did you do to your head? Let me get some ice for that. You don’t look so good, have you been sleeping okay? I haven’t slept since her funeral, doctor had to give me the extra strength sleeping pills. Her voice drifted into the kitchen but didn’t stop. Oh, baby! You don’t have anything in this kitchen. You need some food. What are you eating?
“Roger…”
Adept at noticing the difference between the chatter and words meant to conjure a response,
“Let’s take
“Oh, no that’s not necessary, really…”
“I know it’s not necessary. I want to do it, silly. Roger, get
“This is very kind, but really…”
“Oh, I won’t hear of it. My therapist says I’m still wracked with guilt about not teaching Mary to eat healthy enough with her condition. It drives me crazy that I still don’t know what she ate that gave her all that trouble this last time.”
Gary interjected. “You can’t take that on yourself, who knows what combination of foods might have…”
His father-in-law piped in, “Where’s the sweater?”
“It should be right on that hook by the door” his wife said. “Oh… it looks like all your sweaters and coats have fallen off the hooks.”
Gary whipped around concerned that the lumps have been knocking things off walls again. She was right, the hooks were empty. His eyes darted around the foyer looking for the culprits.
“Here they are!” his mother-in-law said.
“What?!”
“Your sweaters. They’re on the floor.” She handed him one and hung up the others. “So are you ready to head to the store?”
“Sure, I guess.”
She began her chatter again, and it was almost comforting to
His mother-in-law retraced her steps back into the house toward her husband. “Is that a bottle? What is it?”
The old man cleared his throat and looked at
1 comment:
This short story reminds me of an incedent when I was 4 years old. I had cut my own hair with sissors. Two nights in a row, I began seeing clumps of hair crawling up the walls and door to my bedroom at night. I was so afriad to follow them behind my bedroom door for fear that they wold jump out and attack me. I stayed in bed till morning. I was convinced that what I saw was real, but I think my parents knew better when I told them what I saw. Guilt.
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