Black Jack…Wanna Play?
Taking it easy today, all the food (& drinks ;o) have me in slo mo. Please take a moment & check out this exclusive Black Jack excerpt:

Allen tried calling his sister several times, however after not hearing from her by the next day, he decided to take a long lunch, stop by and check on her. Maybe he’d ask her out to lunch. He figured he could use it as an excuse plus he thought maybe she would enjoy getting out of the house for a spell. Right then he promised himself he would be a better brother and make an effort to see her more often.

He pulled up into her driveway and saw several plastic-bagged bundles of rolled up newspapers, lying randomly on the lawn. They were wet from last night’s short rainfall. That indicated something wasn’t right. Helene read the paper with her Sanka every morning. She would never have left so many outside to clutter up her landscaping. Allen knew if she had planned to go somewhere, she usually made arrangements to stop delivery.

His hand trembled, just a little, as he got the key from under the imitation rock in the terra cotta planter under the doorbell. The tremor got worse as he tried to place the key in the hole. He heard Helene chuckle, “Put some hair around it,” and the sound of her laughter reminded him of how much he loved her off-the cuff evocative comments. He couldn’t remember the last time he told her he loved her. Sometimes, one should take the time to let people know just how important they truly are.

“Helene?”

His voice came out as a raspy whisper.

“Hey, where are you?” He spoke a little louder this time.

It felt so cold. Allen went directly to the thermostat, turned it up to seventy degrees and proceeded to walk past the living room, down the hall toward her bedroom.

The bed looked like someone had just gotten out of it, rumpled sheets pulled down, pillows scattered. Not at all like Helene, in her world, everything had its place. That condition worsened after Frank died.

When he got to her bathroom, the closed floral shower curtain seemed ominous. She never kept the curtain closed. He remembered she told him it had something to do with reading “The Shining”, even though she told her lady friends she thought people who kept the curtain drawn were probably hiding a dirty tub. She always kept her shower curtain open.

He pulled it back and although he’d prepared himself for the worst, it turned out more horrible than he could have imagined.

One Response to “‘Banned from Vegas’ Sunday Snippet”