Wendell & Wild

Chapter 8: The Problem

The next day, a woman with binoculars looks at a row of houses with them.

"Look at them. Bloody council members in their tiny houses." A flashback showed two older women, Marianna, and two men who looked around the same age as her, standing behind a layout of Rust Bank. "They blocked our prison before, Lane...and I'll blow beets if they block us again!" Another flashback in the woman's head showed the council rejecting the prison a couple of times.

The man, now known as Lane, snapped his fingers in front of his wife's face, "I'm not optimistic, Irmgard. Can't bribe them, and they're- they're too clever to be...retired." Lane then walks away and lowers his club to hit his ball.

They hear a man clearing his throat, "Well, I have good news. We have new girls at RBC. Full tuition!" Father Bests threw his ball down, hit it with his club, and got a hole-in-one then laughed softly.

"Sweet Siobhan told mummy all about them. Now the state's paying him to take in criminals." Irmgard complained to her husband as she pointed to Father Bests with her thumb.

"That's our business model, Bests. How dare you compete with Klax Korp!" Lane pointed his club at the father.

The father laughs nervously before saying, "Well, technically, it's not competing if you have no prison." The father puts his club away with the others before Lane grumbles.

"He's right, Lane. We need our own council members to win the vote." Mrs. Klax put a hand on Lane's back.

"Oh, yes, uh, the old guard members. They would vote for you!" The father tried to explain.

"Ooh! Where do we find them, father?" Irmgard said showing some excitement.

Father Bests threw his arm out and pointed somewhere, "In the finest mausoleums in the cemetery." He looks at them.

"They're dead?!" Both of them turned to each other.

"It's over, Bests. We are no longer going to prop you and your precious RBC up." She turned away from Bests and crossed her arms,

"Irmgard, Lane, I vouched for you the night of the brewery fire." He turned to them and pointed an index finger at them.

They both stopped, Irmgard turned around fast, "Indeed."

Lane whispered, "Pop his clogs." Irmgard winked at her husband.

She pointed behind Bests, "What's that, then?" She falsely questioned as he looked over there. She raised her club and hit him on the head as he grunted.

As the couple dragged him through the snow, Lane coughed and grunted. They reached a lake and threw him into the cold water.

"Drowning is so peaceful," Irmgard said to Lane as she threw the equipment in the water as well.

"Indeed, sweet Irmgard." Lane agreed with his wife as they walked away.

****

Now nighttime, the wind whistles.

Inside of a house, is Marianna making dinner. She slurps the liquid as the front door creaks.

"Really, Raúl, your art project, now?" Marianna furrowed her eyebrows.

"It's the final part of the mural, Mami," Raúl explained to his mother.

Marianna's phone rings, and she picks up.