The Sky Cracked White

A terrifying drive across the desert and a family secret revealed.

    She stared up at the acoustic ceiling, the telephone receiver crushed against her ear. Mary Beth tried her best not to let the tears escape. She was at work and the ladies over in the typing pool were already whispering to each other while making quick glances her way. Mary Beth whispered a shaky but resolute “No.” back into the phone before cutting the call off with her finger on the cradle. She replaced the receiver, bit her lower lip, put her back to the typing pool and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. After composing herself she picked the phone back up and dialed for a long distance operator. Three minutes later Mary Beth collected her purse and hat, locked her desk and left her keys with the boss’s secretary Betty. Mary Beth was never coming back.

    Five hours later her new Edsel slid to a stop in the loose gravel beside a phone booth at a last stop Gulf filling station. The sun, now long gone, had left it’s heat behind. Trapped in the red brown dirt of the Sonoran desert. Mary Beth wiped at her wet brow as she dropped dimes into the phone.

“Hello?” she said anxiously.

An old yellow dog walk out of the desert night and up to the rear wheel of the Edsel. Mary Beth watched helplessly as the mut lifted its leg and peed on her white walled tire. She slammed her fist on the inside of the booth and startled the dog. It continued to moisten the Bridgestone, but now while looking up into the lady’s tear streaked face.

    Mary Beth finished her call and opened the booth door. She looked out across the desert and saw the sky crack white in the far distance with dry lightning. An ozone breeze blew back at her from that direction and she combed her hair over with her fingers. The smell of carnitas struck her senses hard. She turned around and vomited into the darkness behind the booth. She had no appitite. After pulling herself together she walked back to the car. Pulling the heavy Ford door open, she looked over at the filling station. Beside it stood an old Mexican cooking his dinner over an oil barrel turned cooking surface. The yellow dog was laying in the dirt beside him.

    Her headlamps stayed between the line but never showed her anything interesting enough to keep her mind off the threatening phone call, the mess the b*****d made of her apartment and the overall sheer terror of the evening. The lightning was getting closer. The desert would come seemingly alive in the flashes of burnt light. She thought the Buckhorn Chollo looked like giant tarantulas ready to pounce on her car. She laughed at the silly thought. Mary Beth was tired and she knew her mind could play tricks on her. That’s when she heard the first THUD.

    Mary Beth peed herself right then. Right there on her mohair upholstery. She squealed and jerked the wheel a bit too. Two hours went by after that and she jumped every time the sky would split with light and then slow rolling thunder. She got deeper into the desert as she slipped deeper into the night. She was now acutely aware of everything around her and every sound that caught her ear over the melodic hum of her 390 V-8 engine.

“Clunk!”

Mary Beth swerved as her head jerked back over her shoulder.

“Thump”

“Scuuuf”

“Clank!”

Mary Beth stood on the power brakes and the two door skidded and swerved on to the dirty shoulder of the deserted highway and came to a dramatic halt. The dust cloud settled over the car before she opened the door.

“Whoomp!”

She held back a scream. Mary Beth turned the motor off and listened again. Nothing. She opened her door and stepped out quietly. Her head lamps still on, a coyote's eyes reflected back from behind a saguaro. Many eyes were on her now. Mary Beth folded the driver’s seat forward and searched under it for anything that she could use to protect herself. Cold steel. Ninety degree angle. Nobby thing on the end. ‘That’ll work.’ she thought. Mary Beth crouched low and slid slowly down the side of her car.

“Cuuurack Bang!” The large trunk deck opened quickly.

Mary Beth squeezed her eyes tight and peed again. She continued to move to the rear of the car after a moment without a sound. The lightning was right above her when she jumped up behind the car and gave a primal scream. The harsh light outlined the frightened woman’s figure with the tire iron raised above her head.

    The Edsel rolled on through the night. Mary Beth had chucked her favorite panties into the desert and was now trying to tune in a Reno country station. The illuminated Bendix radio cast a green glow over the cab and the wet tire iron on the seat beside her.

    The sun light teased the dust dancing above her bed as she turned over to get more comfortable. She sneezed and then sneezed three more times. Loudly.

“Mary Beth?”

“Mary Beth!” the woman yelled louder up the stairs.

“Are you up yet, Honey?” she asked

Her eyes opened slowly. She took in the scene and remembered where she was.

“Mary Beth! If you’re not up I’m gonna get you up.” the woman down stairs said.

“I’m up, I’m up. Keep your panties on.” she said and then smiled because she knew SHE hadn’t.

“Um, Mary Beth? I think we need to talk….”

    Mary Beth found her way through the hall and down the same staircase she had walked a million times as a kid. Before reaching the bottom she had caught sight of her parents picture hanging on the wall. She placed her hand on her daddy's face. She missed him so much. Mary Beth continued down and around the corner to the living room, saying “Good morning, Sis.” before she got there. Mary was thankful she had just used the restroom because she almost peed herself again.

“Mary Beth, I caught this…”Thing” crawling across my lawn this morning. Now, I could be mistaken but I think he might have come out from your trunk, seeings how the lid is up and all.” her sister said in her bizarrely calm fashion.

Mary Beth felt dizzy. She sat down hard on the old dog couch and tried to reconcile what she was seeing. Nancy, her sister was sitting in one of the oak dining room chairs holding a gun on a destroyed man sitting on the fireplace hearth. ‘This was impossible.’ she thought. He was blood soaked from head to toe. His broken jaw hung crooked and one of his eyes was partially popped out of it’s socket. She knew he must’ve had two broken arms as well. The man looked conscious but unaware of anything.

“Mary Beth, Honey. Are you alright.” Nancy asked.

“Um, yes. Yes, I’m okay I guess.” she answered.

Nancy studied her sister for a moment and concluded she was alright. She then prodded the wreck on her hearth and asked

“Well? What about Fabio here?”

Mary Beth took a deep breath and started.

“Nancy? Do you remember what daddy gave me for my college graduation?”

Nancy gritted her teeth imperceptibly and said

“Um, wasn’t it that shoe box full old Blue Chip stamps or something?” she said in a fuzzy memory kind of way.

“Actually,” she said “the box was full of old railroad bearer bonds.”

Nancy said nothing but motioned her to continue.

“Well, somehow he found out about them and tore the apartment up looking for them. He called my work when he couldn’t find them and threatened me. I got home and found him using the toilet and beat him with my softball bat until he was dead.”

The two women looked over at the pulp of a man. He seemed to shrug.

“I know.” Mary Beth said. It was a big bat and my arms got tired.”

“One of those slow pitch wooden bats?” Nancy asked

“Yep, one of Bob’s favorites.” she said.

“Yeah, by the way, where was Bob during all that?” Nancy asked

“Um…” she said “Nancy, that IS Bob.”

Nancy’s head jerked around so fast. She studied his features and then yell at her sister.

“God damn it, Mary Beth. You ruined Bob!” then

“POP!” Nancy shot Bob in his good eye.

Mary Beth peed herself.

    After dragging Bob’s corpse out of the house and dumping it into the hog pen, Mary Beth headed for the shower with her sister’s promise of clean panties afterward.

“Mary Beth, are you ready yet?” Nancy called down the hall.

“I’m almost done!” she lied. Mary Beth had been ready for awhile. She had been going through her deceased father’s things when she came across what she was looking for. The trick was in hiding it from her sister.

    The two sisters sat across from each other at the old family table eating breakfast and drinking coffee. They caught up on family gossip and Nancy teased her younger sister about the ugly car she bought. They laughed like sisters do when they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Then

“Mary Beth, you know I was always against you two getting married.”

Heavy sigh and then “Nancy, this ain’t the time for “Told Ya So's”, said Mary Beth

Nancy lit a camel and blew out the smoke before continuing. She waved her hand in front of her to push the smoke away from her little sister.

“Mary Beth, you got it all wrong. I was in love with Bob. In fact, we’ve been sleeping together your whole marriage.

“I, I don’t even know what to say to that. I guess in retrospect, you can have him.” Mary Beth said, looking out the window and over at the hog pen.

“There’s more.” Nancy said.

“Stealing that box of bearer bonds was my idea. Those should have been mine!” she slammed her hand down on the table and continued “I’m the oldest. I didn’t want this crumby farm. Bob and I were going to make a life for ourselves somewhere far from here but he couldn’t find the damned box and got impatient. Then you destroyed him.

“He threatened to kill me, Nancy.” she said in her defence.

“Where’s the f*****g box, Mary Beth!”

“You really want that box?” she asked

“You god damned right I want that box. I’m the oldest and I deserve it.”

“Do you really want that box, Nancy?” she repeated

Nancy pulled the revolver from under the table and aimed it at her sister's head.

“I’m not f*****g around, B***h! Give me the box.”

“Fine, then.” Mary Beth said in a resigned tone.

“What do you mean “Fine”?” Nancy asked.

“It’s here.” she said.

“You brought it with you? How convenient.” Nancy said in a smart-a*s tone.

“No.” said Mary Beth “It’s here. It’s always been here.” she said.

The two sisters glared at each other across their family table.

“Show me then.” Nancy commanded and waved her sister on with the gun.

Mary Beth headed down the hall as if nothing was wrong. As if her sister didn’t have a gun aimed at her head. Nancy followed her sister to the basement door.

“The basement?” Nancy asked incredulously “You know Pop cleared that out about a year before he died, right? There’s nothing down there but the old furnace.” Nancy said.

Mary Beth turned the butterfly latch and looked back at her sister with a smirk and said “You may be the oldest but you sure ain’t the smartest.”

Nancy gave her the bird and flipped on the cellar light as she followed her down the old wooden stairs.

     They reached the bottom and turned the second bulb on that was hanging in the center of the room. Nancy prodded her sister with the barrel of her gun just for spite. Mary Beth walked to the corner of the room where the brick wall met the old furnace. She started pulling bricks away, being careful not to drop them on her feet. Nancy stood behind her yelling to hurry up. Mary Beth stopped chucking bricks and pulled an old water stained shoe-box free from its hidey hole.

“Give it to me!” Nancy yelled “I’m the oldest. That’s MINE!”

Mary Beth turned and offered the box to her sister. Nancy grabbed it with both hands. She pulled the lid off quickly not noticing her younger sister had pulled something out of her back pocket. She never even registered her sister’s quick hand movement in front of her. Nancy felt dizzy. She looked up from the box to her sister. Mary Beth had stepped back and was holding a bloody straight razor up with her right hand. She reached out with her left and took the box back. Nancy looked at her sister with dawning understanding.

“Now I’m the oldest.” Mary Beth said with a smile.

Nancy’s eyes rolled backward into her head as she collapsed on the mildewy brick pile.

Mary Beth returned her shoe-box to it’s hidey hole and fired up the old furnace.