Read Online Mark of the Beast by Adolphus A. Anekwe - Free Book Online

the child cleared the parked cars, on came a Toyota Camry at an excessively high rate of speed. The car must have been traveling at least sixty miles an hour in a speed zone posted at thirty-five miles per hour.
    Just then, the boy looked at Joanne and gave her a closed-mouth, sad-faced smile.
    â€œI’ve seen you before,” Joanne said to herself aloud.
    The squeaking of the brakes, the shrieking of the child, and the strange buzzing sound coming from the distant steel mills became deafening—and then, silence.
    *   *   *
    Joanne woke up from the strange dream to the buzzing of the radio alarm on the nightstand.
    It was Monday morning in Chicago.
    Joanne had spent the whole weekend arguing with Doug’s parents, so much so that by Sunday night she was tired. They had been here for the weekend visiting their grandchildren.
    Dick and Valerie Stead had made their quarterly trip from Beloit, Wisconsin, to Chicago for their usual aggravation visit. What made things worse, Joanne believed, was that Doug, her own husband, always sided with them.
    â€œThat really is very frustrating,” Joanne muttered, face flustered, as she walked out of the bathroom, heading toward the kitchen.
    â€œGood morning!” Doug’s voice pierced the silence of the morning and startled Joanne.
    â€œYeah,” Joanne said, hardly opening her mouth, and not in the mood for any conversation, especially with her husband.
    â€œThat was a wacky weekend.”
    â€œIf you say so,” Joanne said with a loud yawn.
    â€œCome on, honey, what is that supposed to mean?”
    â€œWhat is what supposed to mean?” Joanne snapped, her voice stern, her face serious and sarcastic. “Ouch!” she bellowed as she turned on the coffeemaker.
    Doug, standing at the edge of the beautiful marble kitchen counter, said with a small grin. “You knew exactly what I meant.”
    Spreading her hands in an effort to try and minimize the situation, Joanne appeared mystified. “No, I don’t know what you meant.” Not this morning, she thought. All she wanted to do was to get the kids ready for school. Alexis and Isipe were still asleep in their respective rooms.
    Joanne made a move toward the kids’ rooms in order to get them up and ready for school.
    â€œHoney,” Doug interrupted, “are you still angry at them?”
    â€œYou know what?” Joanne retorted, with a serious and angry look on her face. “Your parents are the most irritating individuals I have ever met. I think they take personal pleasure in exploiting … manufactured weakness so that they can have reasons to justify … and especially in your case, make their point that Stella would have made a better wife for you.”
    â€œWhat? Where did that come from … and … what does Stella have to do with this?” Doug appeared genuinely baffled, even though he knew what was coming.
    Joanne tended to do this whenever she was really upset, Doug thought. She’s never accepted the fact that she’s good at what she does.
    â€œOh, so you don’t see what they’re doing?” asked Joanne, fumbling to put on her slippers with one hand while she balanced herself on the dresser with the other clenched hand. “Of course you don’t. You’re too busy agreeing with them and, of course, the laugh is on me.”
    â€œWhat is this ‘of course, of course,’ thing?” Doug asked, face puzzled and serious.
    Doug, who was an attorney, never appreciated it when opposing lawyers used the phrase “of course.” He always interpreted that phrase as a backward way of minimizing his arguments.
    â€œThey’re not doing anything,” Doug continued. He started walking toward Joanne to hold her hands. “Do you think that my parents have the power to disrupt this marriage?”
    â€œYes, I do,” Joanne snapped, wrenching her hand back, her voice