Shine stood watching her dying brother with unbelief in her mind even though the evidence was in front of her eyes. She could not fathom the ‘smug sneer’ on her brothers face and she asked herself ‘does he think this is funny?’ Perhaps he did, after all he had lived with and adopted the ‘psychopathic philosophy’. Shrew had taught him well. Shine realised that she did not really know this brother even though they had been close and now all of the relationship and its actions and consequences came into question – a lifetime of doubt! A new picture was emerging and it was not a pleasant one and everything would have to be reviewed in order to understand it and gain a true perspective on her life and relationship and that of the psychopath, her husband and child Bozonarciss.
Shine stood staring at her brother and said “Well?” and finally he admitted that he had taken them years before – still no remorse – and Shine’s heart sank. There was no point in continuing for obviously there would be no satisfaction, no apology, no regret. Even facing death her brother did not relent or repent and only god knows what he said to himself to justify his actions – maybe he didn’t, perhaps he was beyond caring! The theft had created so much ‘bad blood’ in the family it was now unrepairable – a split and a wound that would never heal! What could Shine do? She said she was going to take them and return them to their rightful owner and her brother blocked the doorway of the bedroom with the wheelchair and said “No, they are staying here, he will get them when I am gone!” As a side note, James never did receive his films back as Bozonarciss would not allow their return. But that story is for a later time as there is much pain attached to it also.
Anger, disgust, ire and a multitude of feelings raged through Shine’s thoughts. He’s a liar, thief, manipulator, bringer of pain, an energy vampire and cares not for others! ‘He is in service to self and walks in shadow!’ Shine’s world was so out of whack, the truth was so different to what appeared to be reality that it rocked her – shook her to her core. It was one of those moments that was burned into her psyche for ever and could not be erased or altered because it had touched her soul – marked it – and it would never be the same, reality shifted, the world tilted and was forever askance. Someone she had loved and cared for her whole life, been there for him, supported him, was not a good person and behaving so badly she did not know him! She dropped the films on the bed, glared at her brother and said she was going. Shine would later think to herself when some equilibrium had returned, ‘What about the dying man’s confession?’ ‘The asking for forgiveness?’ ‘The seeking of resolution?’ ‘The need for absolution?’ ‘The healing of a family?’ ‘To seek truth and to walk in the light?’ But none of that had manifested , just that smug defiance and Shine would once again feel tremendous, soul biting pain and the tears of despair.
Whilst struggling her way through this emotional battlefield another incident of theft was recalled to her memory. One that had happened about six years previously. Shine recalled that Shrew had suddenly started turning up frequently and unexpectedly to the familial home, which at that time was two hours travel away by car. Shine’s father was always suspicious of these visits and stated so as he never liked Shrew and would always question her motives. (He turned out to have more wisdom than was thought and therein lies a lesson also.) So anyway, on one day Shrew turns up soaking wet and not in the car and says that she came by train but she did not ring to get picked up. The distance to the station was ten miles. Shrew tells her father in law that she walked from the station, he immediately disbelieves her and thinks that she walked from the end of the street as she had no umbrella. You see it had been raining heavily for nearly a week up and down the whole coast and no-one would travel that far (around 60 miles) without her car and walk ten miles in the pouring rain – torrential – with no umbrella and how long would it take?
So Shine’s father interrogated Shrew as was his want, and finds that the story is convoluted and non-sensical and the times do not correlate. Shine’s father did not believe a word of it and could smell a rat. What was really going on here and who else was she seeing? For Shrew clearly had not walked ten miles in ‘high heels’, so someone had driven her there, she had no umbrella so she hadn’t needed one and therefore not brought it as a car was involved. She was wet but not ‘soaked to the skin’ as she should have been and still had plenty of energy. Shrew stuck to her lies and Shine’s father gained no truth or resolution, Shrew wanted to spend the night and was allowed to stay as it would have been rude to refuse, she was his daughter in-law after all. So stayed she did this night as she would for several others – very unusual- and her father in law was constantly suspicious and forming his own theories for this odd behaviour. She did not tell her father in law anything and when he awoke at 6 am the next morning Shrew was gone! She did not wake them, leave a note or say goodbye or anything and this confounded them even more. The other family members came to visit, stay the night or weekend and this continued for a month and all seemed well.
On Shine’s next visit her father sat her down after the kids had gone to bed and said to her we need to have a serious talk. Shine was immediately alarmed as she thought her father might be sick or dying or perhaps she had committed some ‘faux pa’ or other. Her father said to her “I need to ask you something and it’s very serious, I have spoken to your siblings about it.” “There is a thousand dollars missing from this house, did you steal it?”
Shine’s jaw dropped, the shock reverberated around the inside of her skull and stunned her, she truned ashen, her mouth dried up and she was unable to speak and she sat there like a gaping cretin. Shine’s father immediately said to her, “No, I can see you didn’t but I had to ask.” Shine’s father went on to explain how it happened, where the money was hidden – under a rug on the lounge room floor, underneath the sofa in a wallet – so whoever had stolen it, had been doing a great deal of searching to find it. Shine’s father believed he knew who it was and began to unravel a story.
To be continued…
These stories are fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. This work belongs to the author.
workerinlight 