Dependency
Sonny and Karen walked down the boulevard in the lovely glow of the yellow streetlamps that dotted the landscape. Mosquitoes didn’t bother them; those pesky bugs stayed in the sky, buzzing loudly around the bulbs on the metal poles. Occasionally, Karen slapped her arms, but just instinctively. Sonny held her hand tightly, waving their arms like pendulums. He smiled like a teenager who left his house after curfew with his nubile lover.
With a headshake, Sonny looked at his bride. “I invited my brother to live with us. I assumed that he would look for a job.” He said, “I didn’t think that I’d have to feed him for three months. Willy thinks about himself and nobody else. I shouldn’t have expected normal behavior.” He said, “He just doesn’t realize the burden that he puts on people. Willy couldn’t care less that everyone else lives independently. And they work like animals to live independently.”
Karen said, “We didn’t leave college so we could drink and oversleep; Willy did and he brought those problems to our house.” She said, “With him, small tremors grow into massive earthquakes. I just didn’t understand before.”
Sonny said, “I’d tell him to leave, but I have to repair holes in the drywall anyway. He could help. After all, he put them there.” He said, “How do we tell him to behave normally? Whatever we tell him, he misunderstands, just like a baby.”
Walking down the street, they stopped. Another person waddled past them. The burly body behind the black shadow appeared blind or mentally numb. He didn’t notice Sonny and Karen and probably wouldn’t have if they were walking without clothes. After he bumped Sonny absentmindedly, Sonny yelled. He said, “I think you just took my wallet. I want it back.”
With a shake, Sonny loosened his hold on the female hand until her arm pulled him back. “Please,” Karen said. “He didn’t hurt you, and he won’t hurt me, either.”
After they passed the corner, Sonny yelled to Karen. Instinctively, she jumped into her husband’s arms. With a push, he put her behind a truck. He looked at the body on the blacktop. It lay motionlessly, with massive legs dressed in bloody jeans. The corpse held its hairy arms over its head. The eyelids fluttered; a hefty wind touched them, but no life inside the body did. Sonny yelled at the man who had passed them. A lengthy shadow still oozed around the nearby trees. Splattered in blood, he had probably killed the man for money.
“When that man bumped us, did you recognize him?” Sonny said, “I think he recognized us. He walked by us too quickly.” Karen lifted a narrow eyebrow.
Karen said, “Shouldn’t we notify the police?” She shook like a chilly breeze just blew through her body. With a nod, Sonny agreed. When Karen dialed, she heard static on her phone. No police answered; her phone just bleated. Karen said, “We’ll find out the truth when we get back home.” Quickly, they traced their steps back to their small house.
On their porch, they lay like dolls dipped in paint. All of their possessions had vanished. Their house looked like a bankrupt museum without any artifacts. Sonny blinked; chrome sparkled below his spiritual body. Lifelessly, Sonny held his handgun tightly. Finally, it occurred to Sonny why the burly man had looked so familiar.
He said, “We lived with Willy for three months. We should’ve forced him to leave earlier.” He said, “Obviously, Willy killed us both before I could shoot back. I assume that he jumped into the road, before that truck.” He said, “He took his own life after he took ours. We just passed him on our way to eternity.”
On their porch, a jagged scrawl marred the rustic wood. I couldn’t live without help. Sonny didn’t argue. “He couldn’t survive without us.” Karen nodded slowly yet firmly.
