The Bad God
by
wrc
Alice Cabono had no children but she loved them and always went out of her way to be around them.
She was very unhappy. She wanted a loving husband and some children. But she was married to bad man who didn´t give a damn about her or her feelings or her dreams.
She had asked for a divorce. He laughed at her and said the Church had a policy that she belonged to him. No divorces allowed.
“Í don’t want no rug rats crawling around in my house.” he said.
She became depressed as her future was cancelled.
Then she noticed Stan Devoring at the bank. He always wanted to wait on her. They had started going to lunch together. They had their lunches at the Merry-go-round in the park. They liked to watch the children having fun. He wanted children, too.
On a day she’d long remember, she told him she was married.
“I don’t care. I love you.”
She began to laugh and cry at the same time. They hugged and kissed.
He suggested she get a divorce so they could marry and grow a family.
“My husband won’t because we were married in the Church.”
Stan suggested that she talk it over with Father Gibson and see if there was something the Church could do.
When she met the Priest, he gave her a tour of his flower garden.
She told the Priest that since meeting Stan all the colors of the flowers were brighter and the world was newer. She said they wanted to be married and have children. She said that marrying her husband had been a drastic mistake.
Father Gibson explained how the Church had blessed her marriage and it was like marrying the Lord. “You
can´t divorce God,” he said.
With the news the Church would not help, Stan was disappointed. Martha was heartbroken.
Stan began going out with Alice over at the Escrow Company and Martha spent her time alone. She stopped eating lunch.
But every day she sat by the Merry-go-round watching the children.
When winter came she stopped going to the Park because the Merry-go-round was closed.
One cold day, during a snow blizzard, she sat up in bed and stared at her husband. There was an empty whiskey bottle on its side on his nightstand. She figured he was still passed out.
She put on her house coat and walked to the hall closet. She got her husband’s big game rifle and put a shell in the breech. She went back to the bedroom. Her husband was still passed out.
The rifle was so heavy she had trouble aiming it. After a couple of moments, she sighed and lowered the rifle. Sitting on the edge of the bed she began crying softly. After a long moment she stood and put on her slippers. She dragged the rifle behind her and left the house, heading toward the Church. She lost her slippers in a snow drift and continued bare footed.
She climbed the steps and tried to enter the Church, but the door was locked. She wanted to talk with the Priest. She lifted the heavy rifle and slammed the butt of it against the door a few times. No one came to the doors.
She leaned against the big oak doors and watched the falling snow swirl around her. She slide into a sitting position, and realized she couldn’t see the house across the street because of the snow. She was alone in the middle of an angry blizzard of white.
She put the barrel of her husband’s hunting rifle in her mouth. She began to cry. She pulled the gun from her mouth and stared upward. “You are a bad God!” she screamed. “You have been a bad, bad, bad God!”
With a sigh, she put the barrel back in her mouth, and because the gun was so long she pushed the trigger with her cold big toe.
Copyright © 2014 by wrc
Reply With Quote
