Love Songs: The Wrong Note - A Collection of Short Stories

4

Jackson worked in his uncle's blacksmith shop, as well as contracting with Obidiah Reverstall, the local undertaker, to dig graves and build coffins for whoever needed those services. He worked non-stop, seven days a week, and quickly built up a nice little nest egg for himself and his betrothed.

***

Vera sat about making a home for herself and her husband, but the daily grind of homemaking life did not suit her delicate temperament. Too many hours were spend alone. Too much silence was deafening. Vera's complaints became innumerable.

And there were those odd occurrences that Jackson could not explain. She suffered violent mood swings, breaking everything her hands could come in contact with, threatening her husband with vile language and horribly descriptive ways of dire deeds she obsessively thought of during all hours of the day. It seemed to Jackson that Vera never slept.

How could she? She was too busy making his life an utter hell.

One minute, she was raging. The next, spending hours laughing at nothing. When his frayed nerves could stand no more, her might ask her what was giving her such fits of pleasure.

"Nothing," she replied. "Absolutely nothing."

And she would go off into another room to enjoy her spells of glee alone.

He never knew who would greet him when he came home from a long day's work. Often, Vera would run from him, terrified if a storm had passed and thunder had echoed over the valley. Or she might pounce on him like a sex-starved lioness, ravaging him from night until dawn.

There were days when she would not let him touch her or even look her way. Convinced that he was out to get her, to do her harm, or worse.

Jackson learned quickly to simply lose himself in work. Any job was an excuse to stay away from the woman who held his heartstrings as tightly in her hands as a hangman's noose about his neck.

It did not take him long to figure out she was beautiful, and he loved her. But she was broken.

Life passed, one day and the next. Twenty years passed.

And then, the Specter of Death descended upon them, ravaging and killing any and all in it's path.