The House

I’ve always hated my brother, but his insistence on demolishing Mom and Dad’s home has really upped the tension between us. Neither of us would move from our entrenched positions. Now that they are both gone, Kerry thinks we can maximize our profits by tearing down their house and putting up something more suited to the upscale neighborhood. My counter has always been that we all grew up in that house, Mom died in it and that was where we all lived when our sister, Lisa, went missing. The memories far outweighing any financial gain.

Now he has forged my signature on an agreement with a contractor and they are scheduled to demolish the house today. I had to get there first. But when I turned the corner onto Third Avenue, the flashing lights halfway up the block told me I was too late.

They had found her.

You have to understand, I never meant to hurt her. I loved Lisa. She was my baby sister, a pain in my ass, then a blossoming young woman. Don’t you dare judge me! I’m not interested in your shocked surprise or your outdated morals. I loved my sister, in every way a man can love a woman…and she loved me back. 

Things started to go south when Lisa became pregnant. I couldn’t understand how that could happen; we always used protection. I wanted her to abort the child but she wanted to keep it. She wanted us to move out of state and live as husband and wife, but hell, she was only sixteen.

Then one day she told me that she had retrieved my used condoms and had inseminated herself. She wanted my baby, she wanted us to be together and wanted to force the issue. I was furious and slapped her, just trying to show my displeasure, only, I hit her too hard and she fell and hit her head. It was an accident damn it!

I wrapped her in a plastic tarp, took her out to the desert and buried her, along with our love letters.  That seemed to be the end of it. She was a missing persons…still is. Life went on.

My brother has the same blue eyes as Lisa. It only made me hate him more.

A few years later we had that 100-year storm. The basement flooded and didn’t drain right. Water pooled in the corners and one of the walls partially collapsed. Kerry was gone by then and Dad’s stroke had left him immobilized. I offered to fix the basement; relay the floor and repair the wall. No one saw me when I made Lisa’s tomb in the wall or when I brought her remains back from the desert. I needed an insurance policy, so I fabricated new love letters.

I had wanted to be here when they found her and the letters and see the look on Kerry’s face as they put him in cuffs and hauled his sorry ass away.

Copyright 2015 Barry Keller. All rights reserved.