Gonna Lay Down My Burdens. Mary Monroe

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СКАЧАТЬ shit…oh shit…oh shit,” Desiree chanted, shaking Chester harder this time. “Chester, baby, are you all right?” He moaned for a few seconds and then he stopped. The house was now as quiet as a tomb, and suddenly it felt like one. My T-shirt was soaking wet with my sweat and plastered to my body like a shroud. I could hear my watch ticking. We were several yards from the kitchen, but I could even hear the water dripping in the sink. Chester’s twitching feet were the only things moving. Desiree stood up and staggered over to me, folding, then unfolding her arms. With her bruises, wild hair, and one-sleeved blouse, she looked like she was made up for Halloween.

      Chester had pulled my hair so hard, the rubber band that had held my ponytail together had broken. Now my wiry hair looked as unruly as Desiree’s.

      “Let’s go,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before he comes to.”

      “He’s dead,” Desiree said gently, shaking her head and hugging her chest. The whites of her eyes were red. Blue veins that I had never noticed before ran the length of her neck on both sides. “Carmen, you just killed Chester.”

      I fainted.

      When I came to, seconds later, I was lying belly-up on top of Chester. Desiree grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

      “What did you say?” I managed. I had to leave my mouth open to keep from choking on my own tongue.

      “You…killed…Chester,” Desiree whispered, clutching my arm as I stumbled, to keep me from falling again.

      Once I was firmly on my feet, I couldn’t move. My entire body had shut down. When I was able to, I moved so close to Desiree, I leaned against her. Somehow, she managed to lead me to the sofa, where she eased me down and propped me up with a pillow like a corpse.

      “Girl, you have really fucked us up this time,” she told me in a detached voice, standing over me with her arms folded like a guard.

      I couldn’t even look at her face. I kept my eyes on my trembling hands as I spoke. “Desiree, it’s time for you to help me now,” I told her.

      CHAPTER 3

      “Put that telephone down. Who are you calling?” I yelled at Desiree.

      “We have to get help for Chester,” Desiree hollered, then lowered her voice to a whimper. “I’m calling the police.” Her eyes looked like they were about to pop right out of the sockets as she gripped the back of the sofa with one hand. I knocked the telephone out of her hand and it landed on the floor between Chester’s feet.

      “Get out of the way,” I yelled. I pushed Desiree to the side and leaned over Chester. A pool of blood had formed around his head and shoulders. The pool was getting wider by the second, saturating all of his hair in front and seeping into his ears and nose. His lips looked like they had been smeared with the same plum-colored lipstick Desiree had on. “Chester, get up,” I managed, wringing my hands so hard they became numb. “Chester, I am not playing with you. Get up, please,” I begged, not touching him. I hopped out of the way to keep from getting his blood on my flimsy house shoes. I looked down at the floor, squinting my eyes at the bloody weight that I had used to kill Chester. It was one of those silver steel weights, the kind people use to do a few arm curls as a warm-up before a real workout. The weight was already shiny, but the blood made it shine even more. Then I looked at my hands. Even though my hands were clean and dry, I wiped them roughly on the sides of my jeans. “Chester, this is not funny!” I touched his side with the toe of my shoe and he still did not move.

      “We have to call the police,” Desiree wailed, looking toward the telephone.

      “And tell them what? That we just killed a policeman?” I yelled over my shoulder.

      “We? You are the one who hit him,” Desiree squawked, waving her arms, shaking her head.

      I gave her an incredulous look. “I was trying to keep him off of you!” I reminded her. “What was I supposed to do? I didn’t want to come over here in the first place. If you hadn’t called me, I wouldn’t be here.”

      “Well I didn’t tell you to hit him. And in the head? With that piece of steel? You of all people should know better than to hit him on his soft spot.”

      “It—it was—self-defense,” I stuttered. “You saw everything. He’d already hit us both,” I replied quickly, in a defensive voice, smoothing back my wild hair. I felt like a rag doll somebody had stuck pins in.

      Desiree leaned down to pick up the telephone, but I slapped it out of her hand again. “Didn’t I tell you to leave that telephone alone?”

      “We have to do something, Carmen. The longer we wait, the worse it’s going to look.” Her lips quivered and then, with her head bobbing, she blurted, “We’ll say he fell.” Her eyes blinked frantically. Her mouth was still moving, but no words were coming out.

      “And how will we explain your fucked-up face?” I asked, rotating my neck, my arms, and my eyes.

      “Nobody has to know he hit me. Nobody has to know you came over here. I swear to God I won’t tell,” Desiree replied, shaking her head so hard, snot splashed out of her nose onto my chest.

      “Regina knows,” I said calmly, shaking my head to keep it from ringing.

      “What?”

      “Will you calm down?” I told her, holding my hand in front of her tear-stained face.

      “What all does Regina know?” Desiree asked in a low, hollow voice.

      “Nothing. Uh…I mean, all I told her was that you and Chester were having a problem and that I was on my way to help you.”

      “Oh, that’s great,” Desiree yelled, flapping her arms like something getting ready to fly. “That was a smart thing for you to do. That bigmouth bitch will blow everything. Why did you call her?” Desiree roared, stomping her foot so hard the pictures on the wall rattled.

      “I didn’t call her. She called me right after I talked to you,” I snapped. I shook my head, hoping it would help me organize my thoughts, but there was too much going on up there and it was too late, anyway. Everything seemed to blend together into one big ball of confusion.

      “I can’t go to jail,” Desiree muttered pacing back and forth. “I’ll go crazy in some jail. I’ll die.”

      “I can’t go to jail, either.” I was surprised at how calm I sounded. Inside, I felt as raggedy as a bowl of sauerkraut.

      “If you hadn’t been so busy yip-yapping with Regina you could have made it over here before Chester got back and I’d be on my way to California by now.” Desiree sighed and blinked, her eyes shifting from side to side. Just trying to follow her eyes made me dizzy.

      “You can still go.”

      Desiree gave me a blank look. “What?”

      I leaned toward her and whispered, “Nobody knows what happened here tonight. You can still go to California.”

      Desiree let out a restrained chuckle and then gave me an incredulous look. “Well, with me gone and Chester stretched out on the floor with a knot the size of a shot glass on his head, it won’t take them СКАЧАТЬ