The Argument. A short story by Charles Roberts.

 

The black hills silhouetted against the threatening lightning filled dark clouds of the otherwise cloudless dawn sky.  In the east the sky began to lighten as the sun made her presence felt. The mist swirled and eddied through the moonlit copse of willow trees giving the early morning a surreal feeling and look.  Stephane didn’t know how she got to this place, all she knew was that she couldn’t remember walking; although she could feel that her feet were wet with the dew from the grass and her nightgown and legs were torn with the bramble and gorse thorns.  The last she could remember was being asleep in her bed, then waking up here, in this place, wherever that was.

          She looked down at her hands, they were covered in something dark, and something she couldn’t make out.  What was covering her hands?  She tried to wipe it off on her white nightgown, but it wouldn’t shift, then she noticed that it was on her nightgown as well.  A splash of it from her right shoulder, over her breasts and down to her left hip and on to the hem of her nightie.  It just looked black in the dappled moonlight of the copse.

          Slowly the silver of the moonlight began to change, as the sun started to rise beyond the distant hills,

The moon submitting its silvery glow to the pinks, salmons, and oranges of the morning light as it seeped into the day, chasing the dark night away with its radiance.  She watched in fascination at the change from night to day as she stood by the mist shrouded copse on the hill top.

          She looked down the hill and could see the houses now as the sun began to burn off the mist as it rose above the distant hills.  In the growing light she looked at her hands again and found that they were covered in blood, the streak across her nightie was also blood.  How did she get up here and where did the blood come from?  As she stood there she felt something rubbing up against her left leg, looking down she saw that it was a large dog.  She looked around and saw a person walking up the hill.

          “Samson!  Samson!  Come here this minute.  My god Stephane?  Is that you?”

          She looked at the person approaching, they looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t put a name to the face.  The dog sat down beside her and leant against her leg.

          “What on earth are you doing up here at this time of day?  Are you hurt?  You’re covered in blood, it is blood isn’t it?  Are you all right?  You must be frozen silly dressed only in your nighty, here take my coat, chasing after that damn dog has put me in a sweat, bad boy Samson running away from mummy like that.  Are you hurt Stephane the side of your face is covered in blood?  How did you get up here?  Stupid question wasn’t it?  Same way I did, but how long have you been up here, you’re soaked.  Come along and we’ll get you home, I’ll call the ambulance and police for you they’ll be there by the time we get to your house.  Do you think that you can walk back down the hill?  Another stupid question Hillary, I must have left my brain in bed this morning.”

          “There’s no need to fuss Hillary; is that your name?  Do I know you?  If so where from?”

          “It’s what friends and neighbours are for dear, to look after each other.  Of course you know me darling.  You live at number twenty six and I live at number twenty.  We walk our dogs together, where are your two?” she said looking about her.  “Have they run off or did you leave them at home?  You must have come out without them otherwise they’d be playing with Samson, they always have a good play when we walk together.  Come along let’s get you home, I’ll just ring the ambulance and police from here, it’s a better signal up here.”

          They walked slowly down the hill, dodging the brambles and gorse until they reached the back gate of Stephany’s garden.  The police were waiting in the back garden.  “Are you the lady who rang us?”

          “Yes!  I found her on the hill top, she was shivering so I put my coat round her shoulders.”

          “Was she covered in blood when you found her?”

          “She was.  I called you because I didn’t know what else to do.  It’s so unlike her to not be dressed and not have her dogs with her.”

          “She has dogs?  I didn’t hear any barking when we rang the front door bell, or when we came round here.”

          “That is unusual because they bark at the slightest noise, but she keeps them under control most of the time; I wonder if they are all right.”

          “The ambulance is round the front, but we’ll need to put bags on her hands until scene of crime have had a chance to take samples of that blood.  Plus we’ll need the nightdress for the same reason.  Could you help us with that, I’m afraid that we don’t have a police woman with us.”

          “Of course, have you been in the house yet?”

          “No madam we haven’t, but the back door seems to be open.  We’ll go in first, just in case, and when we’ve had a look around we’ll call you in.  Where do you live by the way, just in case?”

          “I live just down the avenue at number twenty, I’m sure that I’ll have something that will fit her.”

          The two constables entered the house through the back door, a couple of minutes later the younger of the two came rushing out looking as white as a sheet and vomited onto the nearest flower bed.  The other constable followed a few moments later.  “I suggest that you take her to your house ma’am and find her something to wear, it is not a pretty sight in there.  Did you say that she has two dogs?”

          “Yes!  They are her life.  She loves those dogs more than life itself, don’t you Stephane.”

          Stephane looked about her, “where are my babies?”

          “She means her dogs, officer.”

          “I’m afraid that they are both dead.  Someone has cut their throats, there’s a lot of blood in there.  I know that this is difficult for you ma’am, but do you or your husband have any enemies?”

          “Not that I can think of officer.  Why?”

          “It’s not just your dogs who have been killed ma’am.  Your husband is dead in the kitchen.”

         “Dead…..!  Yes……!  It’s coming back now.  We argued as I was cooking his eggs; my babies started barking, they always did when we argued.  He said that he would soon quieten them down and he picked the largest knife we have and went out of the room, they stopped their barking and when he came back his hands were covered in blood, then he came at me.  I screamed, what have you done with my babies? He swung the knife at me and cut me on the side of my head and again on my shoulder, but before he could swing the knife again I swung the hot cast iron frying pan at him.  I think that I hit him with the side of the pan in the throat, he dropped the knife and fell clutching at his throat saying that he couldn’t breathe.  His head hit the corner of the island unit and he hit the tiles and didn’t move, blood coming from the side of his head slowly spreading across the white of the tiling.  I went to find my babies, I found them in the dining room covered in blood and not moving I held them; then I walked up the hill as we always did in the morning.

        I don’t know how I’m going to clean that kitchen, it will take me a month of Sundays to get it really clean; what with all that grease spattered everywhere and the fried egg stuck to the ceiling.  I hope he didn’t damage the marble counter-top when he hit his head on the centre unit.  And then there’ll be all that blood to get out from between the tiles.  So inconsiderate, but that was typical of him, and what about my babies?  What can I do with them?  I’ll have to get someone in to bury them in the garden, down by the seat, then I can go and talk to them when I’m feeling lonely, and a nice headstone as well.  Or should I have then cremated and have their ashes buried?  What do you think Hillary?  I’ll have to change the dining room carpet of course, but that won’t be any problem, I was tired of that colour anyway.  And then I’ll go out and look for two new babies to look after, life isn’t the same without dogs about the house, and I felt much safer with them there.”