BY ZEKE JARVIS
Copyright is held by the author.
EDWARDS HAD watched the house often enough to know that he shouldn’t have any problem. People thought that you don’t commit crime in broad daylight, but the truth was that broad daylight was an excellent time to commit crime if you knew what you were doing. Everyone just assumed that nobody did that, so you could go in, do what you needed to do, and roll back out before any trouble hit. That was part of the appeal to Edwards, doing something that everyone else would consider impossible. He even enjoyed it when the people who owned the house were there.
The lady who lived there was pretty much the image that would pop into your head when you said, “suburban housewife”. Not bad looking, but not someone that you’d remember. Healthy without being some kind of ninja. Edwards had parked under some trees in an area where he could pull a mask over his face on the way to the woman’s house. He moved quickly, pretending to jog and knowing that nobody would really see him. Edwards cut back and headed to the side of the house, where he jimmied a window open and quietly entered the house. Edwards smiled and slowed his breathing a bit. It was a bathroom, and he’d be able to head from there to the living room or a bedroom.
Edwards walked slowly into the hallway and listened. He heard music playing. Poppy music that was soft. She was home alone in the house, but she still wasn’t blaring it. Edwards smiled to himself as he went into the living room, where the woman was apparently paying bills. The irony amused Edwards. She was sending money out, and he was about to take as much as he could. Edwards took a breath, then he walked up to her, pulling the gun from the back of his pants. He put the tip to the back of her neck. The woman sat up straight. Edwards said, “You can live through this, but you need to be smart.”
She whimpered a little, but that was to be expected. To Edwards, this was just another day, just another job, but to this woman, it was probably one of the most dramatic moments of her life. Edwards stood still. He said, “I know that you have money, and that’s all I want. If I get it, you can easily go free.”
The woman took a deep breath. That was a good sign. She wasn’t going to crumble, so she might take the logical route of giving Edwards something very valuable and letting him get away. “I’m not sure what you want,” she said. “Are you looking for cash, a TV?”
Edwards exhaled long and slow enough for the woman to recognize that he was annoyed. He wondered if she was playing dumb. “I’ve been watching you,” he said. “I know that you have a husband, I know that you have kids. This is your one and only chance to make their lives easier. Imagine that I had one of them in front of you, gun to their head. What would you offer to save their lives?”
The woman shook her head slightly. “I don’t know what you want. So much of what we have is in the bank or tied up in something. Do you want a login?”
Edwards couldn’t help himself. He smiled a little and leaned in. “I want what I can bring with me without being seen, and you’re going to give it to me. Now be angel, and give me what I want.”
The woman’s shoulder’s relaxed. The whole vibe in the room changed somehow, though Edwards couldn’t fully say how. Like the temperature dropped without him being able to feel that it had gotten colder. The woman asked, “Do you read the Bible?”
Edwards laughed. “Honey, the word of God isn’t going to get you out of this one.”
“No,” she said, “that’s not what I mean. I’m asking about your wording, asking me to be an angel.”
Edwards felt his face turning red. He didn’t let these things get to him, but he also was getting pissed off. This wasn’t the usual breakdown or begging. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but this was something. “What is your husband going to say if he finds you dead? I can ransack the house myself.”
It was like the woman didn’t hear him. “In the Bible, angels weren’t playing harps sweetly and floating on clouds. In the Bible, they had flaming swords. They were terrible beings with six wings and many eyes. Humans wouldn’t be able to look at them without feeling fear. Do you understand?”
Edwards started to feel wobbly. He didn’t know what was happening. “Honey. I know two things. First, you’re pissing me off. Second, your window of time for a happy ending is closing.”
Now the woman laughed. “You’re right about the second point. You might want to heed your own advice.”
Edwards looked at the back of the woman’s head. He wondered if he should pistol whip her and start rummaging through the house or if he should keep threatening her. As he looked, something strange happened. The woman’s head changed somehow. Edwards wondered if maybe he was having a stroke or something. The woman’s hair started to flutter. It spread a bit more, and he saw eyes. Edwards stepped back. “Fuck,” he yelled.
The woman laughed again. She stood without turning. Her body turned without her turning. Her hair pulled back, and her right hand burst into flames. “Do you have greed in your heart?” she said.
Edwards fell to the floor. He felt himself wetting his pants. “Please,” Edward said. “I’m sorry.”
The woman said, “Are you truly sorry, or do you simply fear the hand of God?”
Edwards heard buzzing in his head. “God?”
The woman extended her hand. When she touched Edwards, he felt like he was evaporating. It didn’t feel good, but it wasn’t fully unpleasant. It was almost like he was slipping off to sleep. “That’s close enough,” the woman said.
Edwards understood that he was being eliminated. “Killed” wasn’t quite the right word. This didn’t feel like murder. It felt more like a reckoning that he should have known was coming. That he did know was coming, but that he didn’t want to admit to. Maybe if he had, things would be different, but that wasn’t where he was.
***
Zeke Jarvis is a Professor of English at Eureka College, Illinois, U. S. His work has appeared in Moon City Review, Posit, and KNOCK, among other places. His books include So Anyway…, In A Family Way, The Three of Them, Antisocial Norms, It’s Haunted! and The Calling. His website is zekedotjarvis.wordpress.com
Love this story. Great twist. Thank you.