Family Pestilence

The Morning After

*brr brr! Click!*

"The cars started, kids. You both best be ready before 9:30."

*ssh ssh!! Clang!*

"God fucking damn it!" Bruce yelled from outside, almost silenced by the car's grumbles. When my dad woke me up I felt sick to my stomach. I had cold sweat leaking down my face and tears ringing out from my eyelashes. At that moment, I had no recollection of what I had dream t about last night. I didn't even remember laying on my bed and falling asleep. All I knew when I woke up was that something had frightened me, really frightened me.

After a few minutes of calming myself down, I got out of Jude's bed and headed for his closet that now contained my clothes. "I need socks, do I even have any clean ones?"

Eventually I found a pair of long black socks, one with a small hole at the toe. I tugged them on to my feet, then reached exactly below my knees. Now all I needed was shoes. "Where are my shoes? I swear I put them right next to my closet." I began shuffling through everything, avoiding the piles of Jude's stuff my father had yet to remove from his room.

I even looked under the bed, with only wrappers and cigar buds being present. The last place I could look was Jude's old desk, where his computer sat collecting dust and the keyboard doing the same. Although I doubt my shoes would've made it to one of the desk organizers, I took a peek anyway.

After going through almost every one of them, I realized I hadn't looked at the huge bottom one that had its handle rusting and falling off. So I opened it slowly, the creaking getting louder each pull.

And there they were, my blue and black sneakers that were missing the tips of their laces. Along with my shoes was a ring, a ring that I recognized. It was my grandfather's ring.

Which would make sense if it wasn't the ring he got buried with. A ring he never took off, not since his mother gave it to him. The ring had the Boothman's family crest, the 3 boars. I hadn't known much about my family at all when I was young, so it held no meaning to me.

"Gibbs! It's almost 10 and you don't even have on your shoes yet." A man's voice roared. I quickly grabbed my shoes and slammed the shelf closed. Who knows how my father would've reacted if he saw Jude's ring, which he was buried with, in my belongings. "Hurry up, I'm getting tired of you not listening to me, Mel is already in the car with all of her stuff." The older man yelled.

I then slipped on my dusty sneakers, tied them with bunny ears, and followed my father outside to the car. It was cold outside, every breath that poured out of my mouth was visible and I could feel my fingertips numbing.

"Clack..slam!*

"What took you so long? Dad was getting angry. Almost left without you." Melissa sat behind the driver's seat, holding a pastel unicorn plush to her right arm, almost coddling it.

"I was having trouble tying my shoe, I'll be faster next time."

"Uh huh."

Why was his ring there? I thought he had gotten buried with it? I thought. there was no other explanation I could handle other than my dad deciding to keep the ring and just misplacing it. I was sure that's what it was, but oh was I wrong.

(the next morning, around 1:53 am.)

I leaned over the upper bunk and looked down. "Hey Mel? You up?"

"Yeah. I can't stop imagining scary faces." She whispered, followed by a yawn.

"Oh, well I have a question." I was very hesitant. I hadn't talked to Melissa about anything that's happened, where do I even begin?

"What is it Gibbs?" Melissa said with curiosity.

"Do you think grandpa deserved to die yet?" I said this thick hesitancy. Silence then overthrew the small echo of my hesitance. I shouldn't have said anything, not yet.

"Well," her ragged, now awkward voice said. "He was in a lot of pain, with his health and stuff. So I think he's in a better place now."

"Oh, okay."