A Heavy Pendulum
The pendulum swings. The string is an old rope hanging from a dusty rafter and the plumb is the young man's body. The last thing he saw were the statues of Julia staring at him with living eyes as the noose tightened about his neck. Judgemental eyes that he had gouged from clay and chiseled from stone seeking to capture the life that had been lost. He smiled to himself having succeeded. Darkness waited.
Darkness ended with the click of a zippo and the catch of flame. The young man blinks. Billy is sitting on a tombstone smoking another of his clove cigarettes. Billy, who always wanted to be called William. Billy, the older brother who died at eighteen at a concert and left a twelve year old brother behind with a pair of estranged parents.
"Am, am I dead?" the young man asked, looking at Billy surprised.
"No shit Shirlock. You wouldn't be seeing me if you weren't." Billy smiled and offered his younger brother who lived two years longer than he did a clove.
"Thanks, it isn't like they can kill me now." the young man muttered taking the clove and accepting Billy's light.
"Thats my little brother -------, a smartass till the end." The two look at each other and hug. After a moment of awkward silence the two stand together like a pair of friends who are unsure if they are still friends. "So, why did you do it kid?" Billy asked, exhaling a puff of smoke as he said the word "so."
"I was tired of going on without her, Billy. Tired of seeing her everywhere, but no where. Tired of going crazy again."
"And what do you think you are now?"
"Dead, thank God."
"Come on kid, credit where credit is due. God didn't have a damn thing to do with it, it was all you." He smiles and gestures at his kid brother the same way an official of the government gestured at Einstien after deploying the atom bomb.
Billy had the same look on his face that Einstien did. It could only be described as ashamed, shy, and not as pleased as he had hoped.
"Yeah, I suppose it was all me." ------ said while looking about at the endless cemetary with monuments jutting from the red earth like monstrous newborns crawling from a clingling placenta. "Is, is this all there is, to it?"
"Mostly. Well that and him." Billy said and gestured to a rise where a scarecrow in a long tattered duster and beaten wide brimmed hat stood with arms outstretched.
Darkness ended with the click of a zippo and the catch of flame. The young man blinks. Billy is sitting on a tombstone smoking another of his clove cigarettes. Billy, who always wanted to be called William. Billy, the older brother who died at eighteen at a concert and left a twelve year old brother behind with a pair of estranged parents.
"Am, am I dead?" the young man asked, looking at Billy surprised.
"No shit Shirlock. You wouldn't be seeing me if you weren't." Billy smiled and offered his younger brother who lived two years longer than he did a clove.
"Thanks, it isn't like they can kill me now." the young man muttered taking the clove and accepting Billy's light.
"Thats my little brother -------, a smartass till the end." The two look at each other and hug. After a moment of awkward silence the two stand together like a pair of friends who are unsure if they are still friends. "So, why did you do it kid?" Billy asked, exhaling a puff of smoke as he said the word "so."
"I was tired of going on without her, Billy. Tired of seeing her everywhere, but no where. Tired of going crazy again."
"And what do you think you are now?"
"Dead, thank God."
"Come on kid, credit where credit is due. God didn't have a damn thing to do with it, it was all you." He smiles and gestures at his kid brother the same way an official of the government gestured at Einstien after deploying the atom bomb.
Billy had the same look on his face that Einstien did. It could only be described as ashamed, shy, and not as pleased as he had hoped.
"Yeah, I suppose it was all me." ------ said while looking about at the endless cemetary with monuments jutting from the red earth like monstrous newborns crawling from a clingling placenta. "Is, is this all there is, to it?"
"Mostly. Well that and him." Billy said and gestured to a rise where a scarecrow in a long tattered duster and beaten wide brimmed hat stood with arms outstretched.