The Lie Behind the Postcard - The Daemons inside You
Alma was at her house preparing white rice, Caesar’s salad and steaks for dinner, she had been extremely happy for the recent months. Finally, she got everything she had ever wanted. Ennis left the town with no plans of returning, the whole town knew Ennis was a queer and he screwed a man. She was doing the salad when an extraordinary pleasant thought crossed her mind.
“That’s what you got for loving him instead of me!” she laughed, Alma couldn’t help enjoying the idea of both of them being alive but thinking that the other was dead.
She finished cooking the food, put it on the table. Monroe and Monroe Jr. were looking at the food with joy; Jenny was not there, she was at Junior and Kurt’s house taking care of Ennis Jr. and Francine because their parents left the city a few days ago without saying where they were going.
When the telephone rang, they were eating. Alma went to pick up the phone.
“ Alma! They found it out! They know it now! They are together! We are in trouble!” a hysterical female voice kept crying on the other end, it was Lureen Twist, and she obviously was in panic.
“Hold on, Lureen! What ya’re talkin’ about? Who knows what?” Alma asked her, but Lureen was just screeching, and yelling, and crying, she was unable to control herself.
“Lureen, please, calm down! I don’t know what ya’re talkin’ about!” Alma yelled to Lureen, who managed to stop crying. Lureen took a deep breath and said.
“Alma, Jack and Ennis were here! Somehow they found out the truth and came here... It was horrible, Jack, yelling at me…” Lureen was on the verge of tears again, and she stood frozen. She had never expected this to happen.
“But...How...When?” she asked, trying to pull from her mouth a whole sentence, but no words coming.
“How the Hell I should know?” Lureen yelled back. “I just know that all the things we did are now the things that can get us into jail!” she said, scared, and Alma heard that Lureen’s phone fall down and she was trying to find the phone, swearing.
“Damn ya’, Alma! This was your idea, if I go to jail, ya’ll come with me!” Lureen kept talking.
On the other hand, Alma was not paying attention to any of the things Lureen was saying. As clear as if they were in front of her, she saw Ennis and Jack sharing one of those disgusting moments, hugging, kissing, and doing it to each other. She squeezed the phone angrily and threw a vase against the wall.
“Noooo! This can’t be, the plan was perfect!” she yelled, while throwing vase after vase against the wall. Her family heard all that noise, rushed to her room and saw her hands covered with her own blood. Her eyes full of frustration, anger and hate. She was breathing fast.
“Now, bitch, ya’re gonna listen to me; if ya’ open that mouth of yours, ya’ll not see the next day,” she yelled as she hang up the phone. “She’s not gonna tell me that she’ll tell them everything! I should have never trusted that bitch!” she yelled, then she looked back and saw her husband and son.
“ Monroe, what ya’re doin’ here, honey?” she said, surprised by the way they looked at her.
“Ya’re ok, Alma?” Monroe asked; he was frightened of Alma’s recent attitude.
“Of course I am, Monroe! I was just a little clumsy and let those vase broke!” she said to them, while they were staring at pieces of broken glass - all remained of Alma’s favorite vase - next to the wall.
“Mom, ya’re sure you are ok? Mebbe we’d better call a doctor?” Monroe Jr. was talking when Alma blew up at him.
“I said I was fine! And you stupid boy, stop asking about things you don’t have to know. Now get out!” she yelled at him.
“But mom, I just...” Monroe Jr. tried to say something when his mother yelled again: “I said get out!” Monroe’s eyes were full of tears as he ran to his bedroom and slammed the door hard.
“ Alma, what’s goin’ on with ya’? Ya’re always ‘pset and yelling since yer heart attack, and ya’ know ya’ can’t take that kind of attitude!” her husband said to her, trying to comfort her.
“Shut up, Monroe!” she yelled at him. He stared into her eyes as she screamed. In 15 years of marriage she had never shouted or even raised her voice at him. “Ya’ have no idea what’s goin’ on! Ya’ don’t understand! I risked everything to divide those two, and now they found each other! It is like some freakin’ force wants them to be together!” She was leaving the room when Monroe grabbed her hand and tried to kiss her. She responded by slapping his face.
“Don’t ever touch me again, ya’ moron! As if I ever luv’ ya’!” Alma yelled. Then she looked at her husband. He just stood there without saying a word, his tears flow freely. “This is for Ennis, right?” he said in a cold voice, averting his head from her. “Ya’ divorced him years ago and still think of him!”
“ Monroe, please wait!” she tried to say something. Oh yes, Alma, ya’ have to open yer mouth!
“Wait for what, Alma? Ya’ my wife, but ya keep thinking about him even now! I was just yer lifesaver; I just gave money to you and education to yer daughters! Ya don’t care for me, only Ennis is in your mind now! I’m not good in anything he use to do, not even fuckin’ ya’ because he was so damn hot, and I’m just an iceberg in bed, you said it, remember? I’m sick of this, ya’ know, I married ya’ and I deserve respect!” Monroe yelled. He was so upset that he left the house and went to his car.
“He’s goin’ to the bar, will be back soon with flowers sayin’ he’s sorry!” she said while looking for a broom to clean up the mess.
And she was right. He came back exactly after 45 minutes with a bunch of flowers. “I’m sorry, Alma, I know ya’re under pressure since yer kids are on his side, but I’m on yours, and ya’ know I love ya’,” he said between the kisses he was giving Alma in their bed. But as soon as Monroe fell asleep, Alma climbed out of the bed.
“Such a puppet ya’re, Monroe, ya’re not even the 10 of man that Ennis was! I would have been married to him if it was not for that Twist,” she said while smoking a cigar.
“The fact they know can be favorable to me! I just have to figure out how exactly I’ll do it!” she thought out loud as she was watching the sunrise. “I got it!” she said. Another twisted idea was drawn in her mind at that moment. She went back to bedroom and had been lying sleepless for most of night, thinking about the pros and cons of her new plan.
Summer of 1967
Alma was at home cooking dinner, she had just arrived from work, and Junior was trying to help in the kitchen when the postman arrived.
“Hello, Alma. A general delivery letter for Ennis, comes from Texas!” the postman said.
“Thanks, Richard, I’ll tell Ennis he got this,” she said, it was the first postcard Ennis received in their 4 years of marriage. He had never received a postcard, not even from his brother or sister.
“Who could be this Jack Twist? Junior, do ya’ think daddy has a friend we don’t know?” she said while giving a little spoon to Junior. “Come on, Junior, tell me how is it,” she added as Junior tasted that stew she was making for Ennis.
“ it ‘astes ‘ood , ‘lma!” her daughter said. “Junior, please, I’m mama, not Alma! Only daddy can call me Alma!” she smiled to her daughter. Since her birth Junior was the female version of Ennis; she always did the same her father did, imitating every simple way of his being.
“Oh, what I am goin’ to go with both of ya,’” she smiled at her.
After about 30 minutes Ennis arrived and found them finishing cooking the stew. He kissed Alma, and she asked him:
“Do ya’ know somebody named Jack?” she couldn’t have known then this name would change her life forever.
“We was fishing buddies,” he said, grabbed the postcard and headed to the post office.
For the next month he was talking about his fishing buddy and that he hadn’t seen him in years.
“Ya’ know, Ennis, it is good to see you like that, with a friend to talk ‘bou,t since ya’ not the talkin’ type,” she smiled to him.
And that day finally arrived, and she saw Ennis running out of the house to welcome his friend. She went to welcome Ennis’s friend also, and saw them kissing. With that kiss her world fell apart.
She began to poison her mind day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. “You are less than shit, Alma! They play with you; when he comes here, he does it with you, but then he is with him! You are not enough for him! You can’t satisfy his desires!”
“No, ya’ are lyin’, he loves me!” she yelled and threw a vase at the talking woman; she didn’t even realize it was her reflection in the mirror she was screaming at. She told Ennis it was an accident, but now she was determined to get rid of him.
Alma woke up in her bed, she was sweating and breathing fast; she had had the same nightmare every night. It had passed a week since Lureen called, and they still hadn’t come to her house.
“They must be screwing each other all day long!” she said angrily. She couldn’t imagine Ennis with Jack; it was something she was not willing to think about.
“Ya’ lied to me! Ya’ used me! Ya’ just married me to make others think you’re a normal man, but ya’re a nasty queer! Ennis the queer!”
“You see, Alma, it is good when you admit the truth!” the voice in her head said. “Ya’re here again… I thought ya’ were gone… Dr. Villa told me ya’ won’t come back!” Alma said, scared, looking all over the windows, and trying to find her.
“Have you been taking your pills? No, of course, not. You called me, you need my help!” the voice said.
“I’m not crazy! I’m not hearing you! Ya’re not real!” she said, burying her face in her hands.
“Of course I’m real! Who told you the plan? Me! Who helped you to plan it? Me! I am as real as you are, all you need to see me is just to open your eyes!” she said. “No matter how much Chlorpromazine you take, you won’t be able to get rid of me!” she whispered to Alma. Alma lifted her eyes from the floor and looked in the mirror. She stood there, as always smirking at Alma and whispering.
“You and I know that only death can divide those two,” both of them said at the same time, they were one person.
“ Alma?” said a male voice. It was her husband Monroe, who was looking at her, concerned that he had seen that lost sight before.
“Oh, honey, um… I didn’t know ya’ were here!” she said, looking at him, her right hand nervously playing with her hair.
“I just came from the store! I was thinking about goin’ out for dinne’!” he said. Alma sensed fear in his voice.
“Sounds perfect, let me call Monroe Jr., he can go with us!” she answered. Then she looked in the mirror and saw her reflection whispering “Kill him”. The three of them left the house and they got into the car to go to the nearest restaurant.
“ Alma, have you been taking yer medicine?” he asked, looking at her while she was looking through the window.
“Why ya’ wanna know? Yes, I’ve been takin’ this stupid Chlorpromazine if is what ya’re talking about!” she said in a very angry tone.
“I just care for you, Alma,” Monroe replied.
“He is afraid of you! He wants to get rid of me and you can’t let that happen, not until we fix this situation,” her reflection told Alma through the car’s mirror.
“ Monroe, honey, ya’ know I’m fine! It is just that, I have those “special days of month” now,” she lied, looking straight in his eyes.
“Oh, Alma, why didn’t you tell me!” he said, surprised, but then smiled at her. “I’ll pick up from the store your regular stuff,” he added.
“ Monroe, how was yer school today?” Alma asked her son.
“Well, it was ok, mom! We are having the finals now, and we’ll be putting on a play in high school!” he answered, excited.
“Really, which play?”
“The Wizard of Oz, and I am the Lion!” he said to them, really agitated.
“Ya’re what? Ya’ didn’t tell us!” Alma said.
“Mom, I told ya’! Ya’ even help me with sewing my costume!” her son said, looking worriedly at her - she saw his eyes in the mirror.
“Oh, that’s right! We did a ice costume, didn’t we?” she lied. She didn’t remember that at all, that was something she was facing lately.
“Ya’re sure ya’re ok? Maybe you ought to see Dr. Brown?” Monroe said, looking at Alma and holding her hand.
“I said I am ok! I just forgot that!” she said angrily. Her reflection in the mirror was laughing.
They arrived at the restaurant and went all together to eat their food. When they saw a red truck going on the road, Alma thought she recognized the driver, but it was moving too fast to be sure.
“Hello, Alma! How are ya’?” a man with brown hair and blue eyes said to her.
“I’m fine, Chris, thanks for asking!” she answered.
“How are yer daughters?” he asked.
“My daughters are fine, they live happily with their families”
“I heard yer daughters are not in town! Do ya’ know if they are in that queer house?” Chris said, smiling.
“Ya’ mean Ennis, right? Well, honestly I don’t know where Alma is, but Jenny went out of town with Ennis Jr. and Francine to visit Kurt’s mom in Denver,” she said, looking at the man.
“Liar, you know they are with Ennis! They are on his side, and they hate you now, but it is ok, once you have done it as we planned, they’ll be back with us!” her reflection told her through the spoon.