taken the day off work to move in.
“I’m exhausted. I’ve been living here by myself all this time, and this second bedroom is still a pigsty. It’s been the ‘put it here until I can get to it’ room. It’s cool, though. This’ll be over soon. Once we get all your stuff in its rightful place, I can breathe again.” He hated clutter, but sometimes, it was inevitable.
“Let me help you in here. I’ve already finished in the kitchen. I was going to work on getting the dining area decorated with the new stuff I picked up from that furniture store, but instead, let’s join forces in here and knock this out.”
“Bet.” He turned on some music and the two got to work. About an hour into it, Suri screamed.
“What?” He figured she’d seen a bug or something. It wouldn’t have been the first time she freaked out about some insect she demanded he kill.
“I found it! The elusive box!”
He grabbed it from her, excited that his drawings and new sketch pads had finally been found after all of this time. As he went through them, Suri worked on a couple of other bags of hers that had been tossed in, discarding some cosmetics she no longer wanted and organizing her sneakers to take into the master bedroom closet. The music was upbeat, the mood was grand, but then, everything crashed when he saw a drawing he’d forgotten about.
It was wedged inside the pad, torn from the rings and folded in half haphazardly. A forgotten thought. Wishful thinking. The drawing was of him holding a stick and his brother Tomas cowering behind him. He stared at the smudged ebony pencil drawing, shaking. I didn’t even remember drawing this. Fuck.
“King… King!” Suri yelled his name, yanking him out of his deliberations. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He allowed the picture to drift from his hands onto the floor. She picked it up and stared at it. He turned away, rubbing his eye. “What is this?” Her voice was low, as if a part of her knew. As if she was in some way inside of his heart and soul, and realized this was the shit he’d been avoiding. The shit that poisoned him. The shit that had changed his life forever.
“I need to tell you something.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“I killed someone before.” The words just tumbled out of his mouth.
Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened as if she wanted to scream, but nothing came out. He had no way to pretty this shit up, make it an easier pill to swallow. Somehow, Ricky had discovered this information. Perhaps that was why he respected him, despite all that had transpired. He didn’t know how he found out, and right then, he didn’t care. Suri was distressed and confused by his confession. And damn it, so was he. He looked down and hugged himself, shame washing over him all over again.
“Why did you kill someone? What happened, King?” she managed to ask after several seconds.
“Years ago, when I was a kid, Chris and my mother were working one Halloween. I took my brothers out trick or treating. They were too young to go by themselves. Lucas ended up getting sick. He’d eaten a lot of candy at a Halloween party at school that day, so our neighbor at the time let him stay over there with her so I could take Tomas around. It was just us two at that point, finishing up a couple of blocks. He was dressed like a fireman.” He smiled sadly, the memory now fresh in his mind. “So, we were walking, right? He went up to the brownstones and apartments with his little sack and everyone was talkin’ about how cute he was, the usual stuff. The night progressed, and at one point I told him we needed to head back home.
“He started crying, begging me for just a little more time. He wanted a completely full bag, and it wasn’t quite there yet. So, I told him we’d do just a few more houses, and that’s it. The street started clearing out, most kids were wrapping up their night. So, Tomas walked up to this one house and, uh, this guy came to the door, right? I was standing beside a tree, not many street lights were working, so I guess he didn’t see me. I wasn’t that far though, just waiting for him to get the treats and for