My My Little Prince Read online

  Campbell looked at him coldly in the eye and laughed, “Preparing for a new life asshole … allowing you to join your brother… Having fun?”

  “What are you … ?” His eyes widened as he saw the look on Campbell’s face. His twisted smile highlighted a demonic suggestion that Pierre realized too late that he’d always known was there. He looked frantically around for something to protect himself or for somewhere to go. There was no escape.

  “Actually, I’m having fun … the time of my life. And, I’m preparing for a new life. I do doubt you’ll be seeing your brother any time soon.”

  “I don't understand, what are you … NO! Please no ...?” The lead pipe in Campbell’s hands tore through skin and bone alike as it crashed into the side of Pierre’s face. Everything was in slow motion for both men. For Pierre though, he could almost hear a sucking sound as the pipe was pulled back from his torn cheek taking skin, blood and bits of bone with it. “What are you … ”

  Campbell raised the pipe again. “I told you, I'm having fun and preparing for a new life - a new life as Dr. Pierre.” He struck again, “I do so like the sound of that. You said you wanted to join your family? I’m glad I could be of assistance. It is my sincerest pleasure, Dr. Pierre.” Campbell was still talking to him conversationally as he swung the heavy old lead pipe and smashed him again on the head, this time catching him a couple inches behind his ear. Campbell liked the sound. He held the pipe against the wound trying to feel more of the damage somehow, like maybe it would resonate up the pipe and through his arms into his body. “Oh, did that hurt? Sorry about the pain, but you know; when you improvise ... sometimes the small details are left out. You know ... ” He swung the pipe again. “Like … ” and again, “your …” and once more; “pain?

  Campbell kept slamming the pipe into Pierre’s head, over and over again until it was nothing but an unrecognizable pulpy mess. He sat back panting hard, letting the pipe fall from his hand. “Oh, did I forget to mention that you were not going to return to Santo Domingo? Sorry about that.” He looked over and studied the gory remains. “But I do so love the sound of crushing skulls … so lush, ripe! What do you think Pierre, as a acclaimed psychiatrist would agree this is not normal or is it normal? I suppose it is normal for a few.” He laughed, “Well buddy, it is for me and that’s too bad for you I guess.” He paused and inspected his hands. Blood splatter ran up and down his hands and coat sleeves. He looked down at his jacket front and it too had blood and bits of hair and bone on it. He wiped his face and smiled, looking at his bloody hand.

  He struggled out of his jacket and wiped down his face, hands and hair with it and threw it over Pierre’s bubbling head. “Well, Dr. Pierre, you don’t seem to be listening any more. I do hate to run, but I have to get the car and clean up a couple details before I return to Santo Domingo myself. Oh, by the way,” he was saying as he reached into Pierre’s pocket. “You don't need your passport now do you? And you do not need your wallet, credit cards … ah, family photos, that’s a nice touch, license ... very cool. Very cool.”

  A few minutes later Campbell crawled back out to where they had started. Before emerging from the rubble, he scooped up a couple handfuls of dust and rubbed it over his face, hair, and neck to camouflage any tell-tale signs of blood. He peered out into the encroaching darkness and then crawled on out and stood up. As he dusted off his knees he looked back at the cavity under the house and smiled with satisfaction.

  When he walked back to the car, the old man was still watching it. Campbell gave a little spurious bow and said, “Merci beau coup sir, it was very kind of you to watch the car. How much did you say I owe you?”

  The man smiled and said “C’est mon plaisir monsieur. It would be one hundred pesos or two American dollars”

  “Perfect, here is five dollars; do keep the change, you did great.”

  “Merci monsieur. But sir, where is your friend?”

  “My friend? Oh, he decided to stay with his family. He was dying to see them.” Campbell got in the car and laughed. He looked in the rear view mirror as he pulled away. “Nothing to see here folks,” he said to himself. Looking down at his hands, he noticed the dried blood under his fingernails and sighed like a sated cat.

  The twisting debris filled streets required all his attention now but he reminded himself that he needed to remember he was now Dr. Pierre. Dr. Pierre, the esteemed doctor from New York years ago … and more recently, from that steaming city Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic!. “Yup I've got some work to do. Guess I had better get going!”

  He pulled up to a corner where a young couple was standing. Rolling down his window he asked, “Excuse me please, is there a bus station here where I can get a ride to Santo Domingo?”

  “Yes sir, not anywhere near here because of the destruction, but at the next town. They go a couple times a day,” and he pointed the way.

  “Very good, thanks.”

  “H-m-m; where to leave the car. I guess I'll leave it two towns over, pull the plate and get a cab to the bus station.” Every bus was full for two long days, but finally the new Dr. Pierre was on a rickety bus heading back to Santo Domingo. He settled back in the crush of so many people trying to flee the destruction. He’d been lucky to even get on. Money talks.

  He closed his eyes, but his warped mind worked, “Ah all in a day’s work. I do enjoy the sound of breaking bones. I am working too hard though. I need some rest. It’s so much work to steal someone’s identity these days. I guess that most doctors would call me a sociopath just because I love to feel the excitement of killing. But since I am a doctor and this is my second time being a doctor I would call it research.” He laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. “Yeah, research is exactly what it is. Continuing education at the very least”

  25

  “Come on Michelle, please answer the phone.” Sherine thought as she paced and pulled on her lip. “Ah, there you are; jeesh, what took you so long? Oh never mind, Michelle, hey Michelle, did Mom call you?”

  “No! And if she did I would hang up on her.”

  “Come on Michelle, Mom’s different now. She has Paul and she says he's good for her. He is rich; or at least that’s what she says and he gives her plenty of attention. She says that she is happy and hardly ever thinks of the devil and before you scream at me, I need to try to be normal. Ya know, a mom that I like”. “Sherine, that is crazy, but we all know you are nuts, so ok”. Michelle waits for a response and hears nothing. “Sherine are you there?”

  At that moment she thought of her mom, the look the devil gave her as he left and how she had told him to be careful and that she would miss him. The mix of all the thoughts overloaded her brain. Sherine lost her train of thought. She looked deeply into her mirror; her blank stare a clear indication she was somewhere else, many miles away. She drifted farther away and got that familiar feeling of deep hatred for her mother. He loved me and she drove him crazy too. Maybe he threatened to kill us all because she made him crazy. He taught me to play pool. Quickly her nice side took over and she thought maybe it would be good if her mother did come. Her mother loved him too. She would not do anything bad. She was her mother. “Maybe I could get to know her again and see if she could leave the past in the past.” Joe popped into her mind and she went into another dream, “ah I have all the love I need now.”

  Michelle was screaming in the phone loud enough for Sherine to finally hear her, “Sherine, Sherine, do you hear me? Sherine! What the hell are you doing?” Sherine jumped and immediately slipped back into reality. She stared at herself in the mirror again, surprised at the new bite mark and blood on her arm. Still dazed somewhat, she grabbed some Kleenex from the end table. She wiped off the blood and looked again at her arm and shrugged, “H-m-m, not too bad this time,” She thought. “It’s healthy to feed my addiction to pain. I am only nourishing what keeps me alive.” It was at that moment she realized that Michelle was the one screaming her name and that she did not hear it in her subconscious.

  S
tartled and still hearing Michelle screaming over the phone, Sherine looked once more at the mark and then back at the chattering phone and thought to herself “I will never quit will I?”

  She could still hear Michelle yelling through the receiver. She . ignored the yelling and dropped the handset beneath a pillow on the couch. She walked out of the room and into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and stared into the emptiness. “What am I doing here? Why did I come in the kitchen?”

  She closed the door and stood up looking around. “Where did I put the Xanax? That is what I need.” She rummaged through a drawer and then a cookie jar caught her eye. “Oh yes,” she thought. “Come to mama!” She opened the jar and reached in, finding her Xanax. Satisfied, she walked back out to the couch and picked up the pillow. It sort of amazed her. The phone was right where she had left it. She stood there staring at it. She could hear Michelle yelling louder and louder. But she didn’t care, she was off in deep thought as she struggled to get a fingernail between the foil on the Xanax packet. A few minutes later Michelle’s screaming stopped.

  Sherine popped the tablet in her mouth and swallowed it dry. She picked up the phone and put it to her ear and listened for a moment. “Hey Michelle are you there?” Sherine asked, knowing Michelle had hung up.

  “Hey Michelle,” she continued in her sing-song way, “are you all right?” Sherine sing-sang in the phone as if she was talking to Michelle, I ain't going to school no more, no more. I ain't going to school no more. Oh yes, Michelle those little pills … once chewed up and chased by a couple beers, … you were right, they will expand your horizons. They help take me to my happy place.”

  Sherine picked the pillow up once more and hugged it to her stomach. She rocked her body softly as she paced a bit. When she found herself in her bedroom she lay down on her bed and pulled the covers up around her, shivering. In no time she was fast asleep.

  She awoke with a start to a loud pounding on the door. It was three hours later. It was Michelle.

  “Open the door goddammit!” Michelle screamed out loud in the hallway. She continued to pound and kick on the door “Sherine! Open this fuck’n door. Come on Sherine, open the door.”

  Sherine stumbled to the door, opened it and stood there staring at Michelle with a half-assed smile on her creased face. She stood back to let Michelle pass and giggled, “Wow, you were right, those pills will kick your ass! I was sleeping so hard! Like a rock! I was having these wildly silly dreams too. I dreamt that I was a queen and all my army had big strong shoulders and would do anything I wanted and I had them all do it all. Whew, you were … ”

  At that moment Michelle grabbed Sherine’s arm and started to shake her and scream at her, “What the hell is wrong with you? I know you could hear me screaming your name on the phone! Damn, Sherine did you bite yourself again? What is wrong with you? How could you get that fucked up? Come on for Christ’s sake,” Michelle demanded.

  Sherine waved her hands in the air in a “Hey, I give up!” gesture. She pushed her away gently and smiled slightly, “Relax big sister, I’m fine, I can handle anything. You know that. You sold me like a sex slave and I still love you. And Mom made everyone she was with crazy. He loved us and now he wants to kill us. She made him crazy too. So screw you. I can handle it all.”

  Michelle just looked at her and shook her head. “Sherine, you are nuts but I love you.” She saw that Sherine was not angry and laughed “OK, Sherine, you can handle anything, OK. But you are getting too high, way too high these days and you are acting crazy way too often. You are still obsessed with Smitty aren’t you? He's history; can't you get that in your head. Get – over – it! That was a long time ago, a different life; you were a different person then. He threatened to kill us, remember? You are wrong, he never loved us. He used us. He hunts us now. Please wake up while you can have a normal life. You are so nice to everyone, so pretty and so challenged. Please wake up for me, please.” “Do you think he will come back with more presents? Not likely.”

  “Come on Sherine, you have to get the demons out of your head and you have to do it now before they kill you. If anyone kills anyone it will be you killing yourself with one demon at a time.”

  Sherine yawned and tried to do something with her disheveled hair. “Yeah; whatever Michelle. Coming from you it kinda makes me laugh. Hey, remember, I can make any man do whatever I want and besides, I love your little pink friends. Where ever do you get them?”

  They were interrupted by the phone ringing again. It was Joe on the other end. “Hi Joe,” Sherine breathed, “No you are not interrupting anything, Michelle and I were just doing some tummy crunches … ” Sherine covered the mouthpiece and looked at Michelle with a wink and a big grin. She whispered, “He is so easy. I will have him in no time. I already love him.” Michele shook her head in wonderment thinking to herself, “she has love in her, locked away, for a very special person. I know she does. I just hope he arrives before she over-doses. I hope it is Joe.

  Sherine listened into the phone a second and then shook her head, “No, no,” she teased. I will not over-do it. But a girl’s got to take care of herself, right? “

  Sherine put her hand over the phone receiver and smiled at Michelle once more. Michelle half-smile back and wagged a naughty-girl finger at her, but shook her head a little sadly. Sherine removed her hand and began to speak in the phone again, “Yes Joe, I would love to see you tonight, any time is good for me. … Ok. Seven thirty Joe, that’s perfect. I'll be ready. I'll be wearing a special dress for you. I know you will like it, short and sexy.” A pause and then she laughed “right, and no panties. Of course;” and she winked at Michelle again. “Bye for now Joe, I can’t wait to see you.”

  Sherine stood holding the phone against her heart, rocking a little while she was starred at a spot on the wall, her face a fathomless mix of expression. Michelle touched her on her arm and she jumped. “See Sherine,” Michelle said, “forget the monster. Joe is coming over. You will have a great dinner, great sex and sleep like a baby. And, after he leaves we can sit and talk. We’ll have a few drinks and solve the world’s problems.”

  Sherine stared at her like she didn’t know how she had gotten there and then said “Oh … um I know,” She nodded, “And do you want to hear something stupid? Something that I never thought I would ever say?”

  Michelle looked at her worriedly. She tilted her head and leaned forward indicating she didn’t want to miss a word of this. “What ‘something stupid’ do you want to say? Of course I want to hear it!”

  Sherine dropped her head demurely and said softly, “I actually like being with Joe and I hope he falls in love with me. How is that for saying something stupid? Pretty dumb, huh? And I will forgot about Mr. Devil. You are right he never loved us. He wanted to kill us. He beat you and with mom, not sure; for sure one of them made the other nuts.”

  Michelle smiled hugely and wrapped her arms around her sister, “No it is not Sherine sweetie. Not dumb at all!” She pressed Sherine’s head to her shoulder and then hugged her fiercely. “See my sweet little baby sister, it can happen! We can be normal and have a normal life if we really want.”

  Sherine shuddered in Michelle’s arms but did not try to draw away. “It’s just ... you know, the devil . We loved him and now he's out there somewhere and he wants to kill us…” “Sherine, hello, it has been years and we are fine. Please believe it, we are fine. It was a heated night and probably a few bad numbers, that is all. What mom she heard on the phone may not have been what she thought it was. Maybe he was talking about a friend's dead dog that needed to be removed and disposed of.” Sherine began to shake and tried to speak when Michelle quickly interrupted Sherine. She held her at arm’s-length, one hand on her chin so she had her full attention. “So what! Remember you are tough! Remember, you can have any man you want and get them to do whatever you want them to do! So you do not have to worry about him, he is history! Come on Sherine. You always scare me lately. I don’t know where your head is most
of the time.”

  Sherine stared back into Michelle’s eyes, but her look was somewhere else. She came out of it and turned and started nervously straightening things on the couch and end table that didn’t need straightening. “You are right. I can make him do what I want too, like any man.” That thought put a smile on her face. Her sing-song voice was back a bit, while she very quietly sang “I ain't going to school no more, no more, I ain't going to school no more.” Sherine looked up at Michelle and with a smile said, “You are right Michelle, when I see the devil again I will settle this.”

  Michelle grabbed her and shook her, “Sherine! You will never see him again! Get it through your head, he is the past and he will always be the past.” “I know, but when I do, I will get him to do what I want.”

  Sherine looked startled and confused at this reaction from Michelle. She asked, “Why are you crying, come on it’s ok.”

  26

  It was seven-thirty sharp when Joe arrived. He did a little jig in front of the door, and then tapped on it in a cute little melody. Sherine spat her last sip of breath freshener in the little sink; an attempt to cover the smell of a couple quick shots of Jack Daniel’s Green Label, and walked out into her living room. “Ah-h, that Jack sure starts an evening off just right.” she mused to herself as she crammed last minute items into her ridiculously tiny purse. “Oh,” she continued, “where did I stash those Xanax? I better chew them to get the full buzz.” She popped a .5 mg Xanax in her mouth and chewed, then she washed it down with a small sip of the Jack Daniels. She thwacked herself in her forehead. “Damn, why did I do that? Now I need more mouth wash.” She ran for the bathroom and took another swig. She cupped her hand under the running water to dilute the strong smell of the mouthwash and spilled water all down the front of her blouse.