It's just the two of us. Me and the IRS guy, Mr.
Something or Other, sitting across the table from each. My father's
safety deposit box is yawning open in the middle of the table,
spilling secrets into the crypt silence of the bank cubicle. Trust my
old man to figure out how to pull the plug on my life from the grave.
There were two envelopes in the box. One address
to Mr. IRS, the other addressed to me, William Joseph Bailey. Both in
my father's uneducated scrawl. There was just no escaping the man or
the past. Even in death, he's crept up behind and wrapped his giant
hands around my throat.
I don't know what my father wrote in the other
letter, but that poor guy is going green around the gills, so it can't
be very pretty. I expect he'll be pulling out his cell phone any
minute now and calling in the cops. I don't blame him, I'd do the same
thing in his place. Not much else he can do. My old man never left any
wiggle room to maneuver around in.
As for my letter? Here. Read it for yourself.
Hey there Mr. High and Mighty,
Thought you’d heard the end of me, right? No
such luck. You never did learn that you can’t beat your old man.
Yeah, you ran away, but you couldn’t hide. And you never did escape
from what I made of you. A cold-blooded killer.
You been smart enough to fool the cops, but not
your old man. I seen what you done and kept track. I wrote it all
down. That’s what the IRS guy is reading right about now. I’ll bet
he’s looking pretty green around the gills too, ain’t he?
So now what’re you gonna do, smart guy. Run?
You can’t get far. The cops are probably waiting outside for you.
You figure to kill Mr. IRS? No way they wouldn’t know it was you.
I’ve left you with two choices, boy. Prison or suicide. Same two
choices you left me when you planted the evidence that pointed the
cops in my direction when your Mama got killed. I knew it was you all
along, just couldn’t prove it.
So here we are. Me dead, and you almost there.
I’ll be seeing you in hell, Billy Joe. Sooner or later, that being
the only choice you got left. I’m betting on sooner. You never had
you no spine for the hard things in life.
William Joseph Bailey, Sr.
Copyright 2007 by
Sandra Seamans
Sandra's flash
stories can be found in such places as Muzzle Flash, Shred of Evidence
and Mouth Full of Bullets. She can be contacted at sandraseamans@yahoo.com.
