Page 64 of Resurrect Me

“There are others, right, Solomon?” she asks as she walks up to me and stares into my eyes. Judith Beckner is a short woman. No bigger than five foot two. A leviathan in a mouse’s body.

“It’s just us, Judith.” My jaw tenses and I try to keep a poker face. I don’t want her reading any movement or facial expression I make. Where are Reggie and Clyde? And the others?

“Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me where the others are, and if you don’t cooperate, you and your men here die. Then I’ll kill the others when we find them, because we will, and then your family dies.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re a lot of talk without much walk, Judith.”

Bang. A gun goes off and something sharp and cold rips through the top of my foot.

“FUCK!” I peer down and see a small scarlet geyser seeping through a hole in the top of my boot.

“I’m not fucking around, Sol!”

“Stop!” I shout at her and keel over. But Declan wrenches back my shoulders and jams his gun into my back again. I’m getting fucking sick of this. And now the pain in my foot is crippling.

Then, as all seems lost, the voice of an angel rings out behind me.

“Let him go, Mother,” Tacy demands. Oh my God! Why is she here?

All ten guards turn towards an opening in the wall, where the bookshelf used to be, and point their weapons at my beautiful wife. Even with a black and blue eye, stitched lip, and a limp, she is radiant. Full of life. She is clutching our gun from home, pointing it directly at her own mother.

“Jesus, Tacy, what the fuck are you doing here?” I ask.

“Lower your weapons!” Judith yells at the guards. “Declan keep yours on Sol. The two with the delinquents, stay poised. But everyone else stand the fuck down! This is my daughter!”

Guns, bats, and blades are lowered as Tacy steps further into the room. She’s dragging one of her feet and her breathing is labored. The poor woman needs medical care but hasn’t had much time to seek it.

“Mother, this is insane. Why are you doing this?”

“Drop your gun please, Tacy.”

Tacy obliges but keeps the gun at her right side. She is poised and ready.

“You know why I’m doing this, Tacy. This is our legacy. Your children’s legacy. We must continue your grandfather’s work and build a better world.”

Tacy glances at me. “I don’t give a fuck about grandfather’s twisted ass theories of eugenics. That shit is outdated. It went out of style after the World Wars. It’s crazy, racist, ableist bullshit.”

“Tacy, you know I want what’s best for you and the kids. That’s why when Solomon ran for Governor and started putting his nose into shit he shouldn’t have, I knew we needed to get rid of him. He would never be on our side. He would never understand our family’s work.”

“Because Solomon was a good man. He still is a good man. He cares about people…all people. That’s why he ran for Governor.”

“No, he ran for Governor to feed his own narcissistic ego.”

The guards shift their feet. I hear the click of weapons. Someone yawns.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Who in the back is bored by this little rendezvous?” Judith asks. She strolls to the back of the office, locates the bored guard, a young woman with tattoos and bleach blonde hair, and bam. Puts a bullet in the woman’s head without even thinking twice.

All the color drains out of Tacy’s face. We all figured her mother is a murderer. Now we see it all firsthand.

“Mom! What the fuck?” Tacy screams, as tears fall from her eyes. “How could you? To one of your own people?”

Judith rushes over to Tacy, pockets the gun, and reaches out to hug her. “I’m protecting us, Tacy. Now come to your mother.”

Tacy’s countenance changes drastically. Something dark swims in her eyes and I shake my head no at her.

Don’t do it, Tacy,I mouth at her.

As Judith’s arms meet Tacy’s shoulders, Tacy returns the embrace, then, as if in some sort of death dance, she turns and shoves Judith with such force the old woman flies backwards, breaking the single pane window and falling out. There is a shriek and then a thump.

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