The Gathering Storm

4

The skies turned gray and rolled with huge clouds, and Vickie Timms held her tiny dog as she watched the clouds roll in. She stepped up the creaking wooden steps of the old house and as she walked she smelled the odors of time that were like family.

Vickie wore a long black velvet dress with ruffles in front, and occasionally people would laugh at her in public and she got ridiculed.

“Senile old bat.” They would say. “Nice witch outfit!” she heard all the time. “She lives in some fantasy dream world.” Some of them said as they scorned her. Vickie laughed at them.

Years ago she watched television and in recent times she had seen the new technology sharing the news. Viruses, racism, war, poverty, culture wars, children being abused, people killing each other….hell unleashed on Earth, and this was-reality. Vickie knew her time would end and while she was here she covered her walls and floors with her world, free form evil outside, with only what she allowed inside.

She walked up the stairs wondering how many more times she would make the climb, and opened the chipped and worn door to step out onto the upper level of the house outside and she watched the clouds boil into balls of fury overhead. The lightning flashed and wind blew, then rain fell gently and Twinkie barked a bit as mama stood and smiled.

The storm lasted a few minutes, then Vickie spoke to someone or some thing known only to her, and as the clouds softened into a gray swath of gentle color, the big willows swayed as if waving to her.

Vickie then walked down the steps of the house and as she stepped through her living room, she heard it. It was the end and she knew it.

The van rolled up in the driveway with the logo for the home on it, followed by sheriff Clyde and Ed’s truck. His fat body got out followed by Derrol and Harold who followed like minions behind the swaggering, disgusting form of Ed who tipped dangerously from side to side as he came up the porch.

Vickie opened the door and Twinkie growled, as if she sensed evil.

“Well hello there Vickie!” Ed said with that ugly smile.

“You are an amazing man, Edward Vincent Irving Lairre.”

“Well thank you.”

“It’s not a compliment. I have seen you preach hell fire sermons, then in the same day you can take someone’s livelihood from them and be perfectly at ease with it. The God you worship is either a monster or a blind idiot.”

“It’s not nice to talk about god that way Vickie.”

Vickie smirked. “There are two Gods, Ed, the one of the bible and the one you invented to support your church.”

“You’re going to a facility today and I’m foreclosing.”

“Did you remember to destroy it Ed? You know, my copy of the loan agreement you paid H.I.C.K. and D.I.C.K. to steal in that excuse for a burglary? You know, so if I tried to challenge you in court you could have the only notarized agreement with the date you faked on it proving to your judge, Clyde’s brother, that I was in default…oh, I’m supposed to be too old and feeble to know that, you lying ass, sorry.”

“Time to go, Vickie. Your time is up.”

Vickie paused, then turned and walked to a bay window and spoke softly. She said something they could not understand and the willow at the edge of the property swayed in the calm of the day. She then calmly sat down in her chair, and said “your little inbred hillbillies can do what you paid them to do. They know I am too weak to stop them.”

Derrol and Harold cheerily came into the house as the attendants opened the door on the van.

Ed watched the boys pick up the chair. “You’re going to be taken care of just fine. All the arrangements have been made, you’ll barely miss this place.”

“Satan manages hell.” Vickie replied as the boys walked out the door.

Twinkie barked furiously and jumped down, barking angrily at the boys, and Clyde pulled his service revolver.

Vickie suddenly let out an angry shriek as she saw him and Clyde leveled the revolver and fired. The bullet exploded next to Twinkie, who screeched and ran to bite Clyde. Clyde flung the dog away with his leg as Vickie got up and strode toward him, in rage. Clyde stood and looked at the tiny dog on the ground, not moving and Vickie smacked his face as hard as she could and began screaming. Derrol and Harold laughed and Ed smirked and shook his head.

“YOU DEMON FROM HELL! ISN’T IT ENOUGH YOU STEAL MY HOME AND THROW ME OUT, BUT YOU HAVE TO HARM MY LITTLE DOG TOO? DAMN YOU DAMN YOU DAMN YOU. CLYDE!”

Vickie turned to the trees beside the property. ‘HEAR ME! NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU COMING AND KILL THEM, ALL OF THEM! GIVE THEM BACK THE EVIL THEY HAVE DONE!!” She shrieked.

Clyde stepped forward. “You need to calm down, old woman, you’re going to a retirement home, not the end of the world.”

Vickie stood rigid for a moment, and her eyes were wide. She then seemed to step backward, but instead fell to the ground.

Ed ran forward. “Shit fuck!” He yelled.

Ed looked at Vickie. “Dammit to hell Clyde, did you have to kick and shoot her fucking dog?! The old bat is dead!”

Harold backed away. “We didn’t touch her, man!”

Ed glared at them. “Shut the fuck up you dead beats!”

One of the attendants came over and spoke calmly. “Ed calm down. The woman is fucking 98 years old! All she did was keel over! Hell, she just got out of the picture and did you a favor. All you gotta do is clean this old shed out and bulldoze. You don’t have to wait for the paperwork or nothin’, just get paid and forget it. We take her straight to the funeral home from here! They aint gonna find shit!”

Clyde smiled. “She’s right! Old lady Vickie Timms cant say or do shit now!”

Ed nodded. “Good point.” He stood up straight. “The old bitch is all yours. Boys, go party. I got shit to do.”

Derrol spoke up. “What do we do with all the junk in the house?”

Ed turned and smiled. “She didn’t have no family we know of. Just leave it open and give it a few days. It’ll get empty. It ain't nothin’ but old junk furniture and pictures anyhow, who cares?”

Clyde laughed. “You’re cold, man, just fuckin’ cold.”

The attendants drove away with Vickie in the van and took her to the funeral home. She was taken in and her dress cleaned, prepared and in short order she lay in a redwood casket neatly readied for a funeral. She looked peaceful…very peaceful.

As she lay there, Eric Oberman spoke to Ed in his office.

“Slow down, you dumbass. I can’t just hand you some cash and go plow the dump down. We need to finish the paperwork and make the transaction. What’s your hurry? You said the old skank is dead.”

“I’m just letting you know! So give me a date!”

“I can call you when the paper work is ready. You greedy bastard, chill for a few days and go chase some tail or whatever. You know, like pastors do!” Eric laughed, and Ed began to chuckle.

The papers ran the headline that Vickie Timms had died, and oddly enough the funeral director found quite a few people in attendance at her funeral. They spoke of her as a kind old woman, a little strange, a peace loving person and a large number of them had seen acts of kindness from her.

At the end of the day during the viewing a young man came slowly toward the casket and stood looking at Vickie. He bought flowers and put one in the casket with her. The funeral director came over.

“Family?” He asked.

“Well I found that out recently. I guess she was my unknown relative. I’ve found out a lot of really amazing things since I came to this little mud hole town.”

“Sorry for your loss.” The director said.

The man nodded. The director loaded Vickie up and took her to the cemetery, driving past the towering Jesus and the tall stone Death at the gates, winding back to a stand of trees and put her into the grave. The man kept looking at the casket as if he was lost in another world, then he left.

In his car, the man got on his phone. “Yeah, this is Jerry Stroh, can I get a status update?”

Mouse man was on the other end and he said casually, “Fuck off.” Jerry was astonished, then he said “The guy you sent the payment demand to said fuck off, literally, so the place reverts to you on the first of the month. You have to pay some fees of course, and the house is yours. I need some back taxes and a few other fees, totaling about three thousand dollars.”

Jerry jumped. “I can get that for you today. I have a little more than that.”

Mouse man replied “Good. You’ll need it. By the way, the grapevine is alive with rumors that say Pastor Ed from the local church is trying to bounce the place from his hands to a local contractor.”

Jerry felt worried. “So who has the actual legal rights to the house?”

In his office, Edward Lairre was wide eyed in shock and anger on the phone. “What the hell? A lien? I thought the old battle ax owned that house free and clear! Who has the lien?”

On the other end of the line, Ed’s attorney sat looking at his computer screen with a picture of two women kissing and replied “Some old bag joint owned the house with Vickie and even though she died, her kid is trying to get the place.”

Ed got up. “Shitshitshitshit, what now. I practically have the money for that place in my hands.”

“Give me some time Ed and I’ll see if I can get his contact information and you can talk to him. Maybe the dump is run down enough so he will make you a deal on it, but you don’t have legal rights to it.”

Ed got off the phone and gritted his teeth.

“I’m so glad that old bitch died.” He hissed.

At that moment Jerry rolled down the road and his heart began to pound as he pulled up in front of tall weeds and a house materialized in front of him. He shook a bit as he got out of his car and looked at it. It was stunning, a tall old house from another era that looked incredible, and he thought of Genny.

She’d love this crazy old place. He had several thousand in the bank, so technically he was good on the money for it. The front door was wide open, and he walked up and went into the living room.

Jerry was ecstatic. The place was furnished and almost move in ready.He felt tears of joy. It would be his. The crazy old house was his. He went from room to room and saw all of the furnishings and he spoke out loud to no one in particular.

“Well Vickie Timm, I didn’t know we were kin, but I’ll take good care of the house.” Jerry saw the dolls in the bedroom and he touched them gently here and there. “These are cool. I really like this old place.”

The smell of the old wood, wall cloth and curtains smelled like a cool, atmospheric old house to him and Jerry was thrilled.

Then he heard a noise, and looked down to see a tiny little dog sitting at his feet whining as if it was sobbing. Jerry bent down. He cradled the little dog and held it tight.

Jerry’s heart was pounding, sweat beaded his face, and in twenty minutes he was knocking on the door to Genny’s RV and when it opened, her eyes saw the little dog first and she held out her hands and cooed loudly in joy. “OhmyGodshe’socutegimmeegimmeegimmee!” She said, and took the little dog.

Jerry stepped into the RV and smiled as Genny hugged and loved the little dog.

“I have some really interesting news that involves you.” Jerry said. Genny smiled and began to wash the little dog off. “Talk to me while I wash this little guy. He’s all dirty. I guess she’s a she, and she looks brown and white like a Twinkie. Is she yours?”

“I found her on some property I discovered I had. I’d love to take you there.”

Genny smiled broadly. “Sho thang!”

Jerry nodded. Genny dried the little dog off and gave her some meat treats which she ate happily. “Well since we don’t know your name, little doll, I’m going to call you Twinkie since you look like one. So where is this property?”

“It’s a slightly run down mansion a relative of mine left when she died recently of a heart attack. I never knew her but she had an uncleared lien on the house and I cleared it. Since my mom and her were co owners, this old Victorian house is mine. It might like a vampire girl.”

Genny grinned. “I like you.”

Jerry smiled. “I want to go out there tomorrow but I have to go down to the factory to talk to the head guy for an assignment.”

Genny looked serious as she petted the happy little dog.

“You mean the big blue one that looks so ran down it could

be a haunted attraction? That one?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because the same clown owns it that runs the church. He works people like dogs, insults people and is rude, and don’t get stuck in reconstitute. They call it recon and he makes people work double shifts in scorching heat. He also sends people there when they piss him off by trying to avoid working weekends and overtime.”

Jerry tickled Twinkie’s head. “Boy this town sounds better all the time.”

Genny continued. “I started working there a few weeks ago.”

Before she could finish, Harold and Derrol pulled into their driveway and got out of the truck. They were drunk and Harold came over to Genny’s car and began harassing her as he struggled to stand.

“Hey vam-bitch, boy, girl, whatever the fuck you are, my brother wants to fuck you.”

Derrol threw a beer bottle that bounced off the little car. “I like chicks that look like chicks, not fuckin’ dudes with cinder block faces, shitheel.”

Jerry strolled outside and walked right up to Harold and grabbed his shirt collar.

“Go home you drunken back roads hick, and if you mess with her again, I will FUCK YOU UP BIGTIME.”

Derrol came over with his fists clenched. “You stupid little city bastard…”

Jerry got right in his face and their noses nearly touched. “Whatcha gonna do, little hillbilly dick? Huh? Watcha gonna do?! You’re drunk off your ass and I could beat the shit out of bother of you if I was half asleep! Leave Genny’s car and her alone or I. FUCK. YOU. UP!!”

Harold waved his hand. “Leave him alone Derrol, let the man fucker go chase his ugly assed broad. Just lift her skirt first and make sure you don’t need Viagra.”

Jerry was seething and Genny strolled outside and walked up to Harold. “You know something needle dick, I’m ten times the woman you could ever get without paying or raping.”

Genny began to move her hands around and speak gibberish and the two hillbillies stared at her, then walked away puzzled and disgusted.

Jerry asked “Whats that all about?”

Genny smiled. “They think I’m a witch. That was a fake spell. For the next week they will think every bad thing that happens is my fault.”

Jerry laughed.