Read Online Black Mischief by Carl Hancock - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Carl Hancock
Tags: fiction adventure
Ads: Link
the eyes might have told him that Rebecca was being weighed down by a new guilt. She had allowed herself to be deceived by delicious lust. She had given in to the passion of the moment and was already suffering the pain of regret.
The truth was very different. A deeply felt emotion was troubling her. It was fear. All the comforting words they had exchanged in that beautiful, solitary place, the ecstacy of those minutes when they had melted together under the darkening sky had not managed to reach and wash away the powerful sense of foreboding that had been rooted in her for months like a curse. Twice the Rubais had come close to killing Tom. Next time they would succeed and that time would be soon. This was the pain and she could not share it.
She prayed long and often, but the consolation was short-lived. Now they had become part of each other. They had become man and wife before God.
Chapter Nine
euben Rubai was deeply affected by the family visit to the flower farm, disturbed by the new thoughts, the unexpectedly different personal horizons that were invading his consciousness. He would need time to get a handle on what was happening to him.
Sport, he hated the stuff, so why did his mother, when she got home, find him sitting in front of the plasma screen watching a soccer match? Worse still, why was he animated by the kicking, the heading and the running, willing on the team in the red shirts?
Later, stretched out on his bed, he rationalised his way out of this stupid behaviour. It was all bound up in the vivid colours, the graceful movement of young men in the prime of their lives, the passion of the spectators. Yes, of course, he wasnât taken with the idea of a contest but with the theatre of it all. He had never noticed this before. For the first time he could remember he saw drama in the hoofing, the shouting, the tantrums. After spending a tense hour and a half alone in a car with his father, the ordinariness of the match, its unthreatening remoteness was a comfort, a balm, nothing more than a timely antidote, a brief aberration. Yet he wanted to find out if the reds had won the match.
He remembered something else, this time about life in the house when Julius was with them. Julius was a great borrower. Reuben knew that, unless he went looking, he would never see his stuff again. Almost every time he went searching, he found Julius soaking in a hot bath.
âPlanning time! You should try it. Wash the body, clear the thinking processes. Get up, a new man, clean and fresh, ready for anything. It always works. I could teach you a lot if you had the brains to listen.â
He decided to try out his brotherâs remedy. He would run the water in the hope that he, too, would rise up out of the bath a new man. Lying in the comfort of the hot water, he let his thoughts drift. One memory of his brother triggered another. On the night of the party, Reuben was standing on the golf course watching events from a distance. It took a few minutes to dawn on him that Julius was one of the two shapes lying stretched out on the green surrounded by a crowd of stunned party guests. Dead men, a dead brother.
âNow Iâm the son and heir of the Rubai family.â
The words of his instinctive first reaction came out unbidden and startled him. The shock of them was quickly followed by a wave of shame that swept through him like a warm flush. He heard himself apologising to his mother out loud. âMama, I donât ⦠No, Mama, it is a thought from the evil one. How often have you told us to be on watch â¦?â
He smiled at the memory. When the thought came again, as it frequently did in the days and months that followed, there was no blaming this evil one. He was more than ready to live with it.
âIt is a fact, the truth. But why does no one else see it this way?â
He did not expect a special family moment to formalise the fact, but in five months of waiting to see if anyone else openly
The truth was very different. A deeply felt emotion was troubling her. It was fear. All the comforting words they had exchanged in that beautiful, solitary place, the ecstacy of those minutes when they had melted together under the darkening sky had not managed to reach and wash away the powerful sense of foreboding that had been rooted in her for months like a curse. Twice the Rubais had come close to killing Tom. Next time they would succeed and that time would be soon. This was the pain and she could not share it.
She prayed long and often, but the consolation was short-lived. Now they had become part of each other. They had become man and wife before God.
Chapter Nine
euben Rubai was deeply affected by the family visit to the flower farm, disturbed by the new thoughts, the unexpectedly different personal horizons that were invading his consciousness. He would need time to get a handle on what was happening to him.
Sport, he hated the stuff, so why did his mother, when she got home, find him sitting in front of the plasma screen watching a soccer match? Worse still, why was he animated by the kicking, the heading and the running, willing on the team in the red shirts?
Later, stretched out on his bed, he rationalised his way out of this stupid behaviour. It was all bound up in the vivid colours, the graceful movement of young men in the prime of their lives, the passion of the spectators. Yes, of course, he wasnât taken with the idea of a contest but with the theatre of it all. He had never noticed this before. For the first time he could remember he saw drama in the hoofing, the shouting, the tantrums. After spending a tense hour and a half alone in a car with his father, the ordinariness of the match, its unthreatening remoteness was a comfort, a balm, nothing more than a timely antidote, a brief aberration. Yet he wanted to find out if the reds had won the match.
He remembered something else, this time about life in the house when Julius was with them. Julius was a great borrower. Reuben knew that, unless he went looking, he would never see his stuff again. Almost every time he went searching, he found Julius soaking in a hot bath.
âPlanning time! You should try it. Wash the body, clear the thinking processes. Get up, a new man, clean and fresh, ready for anything. It always works. I could teach you a lot if you had the brains to listen.â
He decided to try out his brotherâs remedy. He would run the water in the hope that he, too, would rise up out of the bath a new man. Lying in the comfort of the hot water, he let his thoughts drift. One memory of his brother triggered another. On the night of the party, Reuben was standing on the golf course watching events from a distance. It took a few minutes to dawn on him that Julius was one of the two shapes lying stretched out on the green surrounded by a crowd of stunned party guests. Dead men, a dead brother.
âNow Iâm the son and heir of the Rubai family.â
The words of his instinctive first reaction came out unbidden and startled him. The shock of them was quickly followed by a wave of shame that swept through him like a warm flush. He heard himself apologising to his mother out loud. âMama, I donât ⦠No, Mama, it is a thought from the evil one. How often have you told us to be on watch â¦?â
He smiled at the memory. When the thought came again, as it frequently did in the days and months that followed, there was no blaming this evil one. He was more than ready to live with it.
âIt is a fact, the truth. But why does no one else see it this way?â
He did not expect a special family moment to formalise the fact, but in five months of waiting to see if anyone else openly
Similar Books
