See You

Chapter 5

Paul led Virginia to the back of the beach house.  Virginia pleaded inside.  Please do not let the surprise be the house.  Please.  Please.  Please.  Please do not be the surprise.  Although she appeared calm, she was panicking inside.  Tell me you did not put a down payment on it without telling me.  We cannot afford it.  And the timing could not have been worse.  She told herself he would not go that far.  She hoped he had not gone that far.  He walked her near a canoe. 

“Turn around,” Paul said.  She looked at him and wanted to ask him what he was about to do.  She did not feel like being blindfolded and led inside the house like a clown.  “You have to turn around and cover your eyes.”  Please do not be the house, she thought and stared at him.  “You have to turn around.”  She exhaled and turned around and put her hands over her eyes.  “Don’t look.”  She told him she was not looking.  He took black gloves from his pocket and put them on.  Then he leaned over and reached into the canoe.  “Don’t peek.”  He touched a bottle and grabbed it.  Then he reached into his pocket and took out a cloth.  She wondered how long his surprise would take and prayed for the surprise not to be the house.  He screwed the top from off the bottle.  Then he covered the mouth of the bottle with the cloth and turned the bottle upside down and shook it.

“What are you doing?” she asked.  He told her to be patient.  He screwed the top back onto the bottle.  The top made a grinding noise.  “What is that?”  He reached around her and pressed the chloroform soaked cloth over her nose and mouth.  Her eyes opened wide.  Her hands grabbed his arm and pulled downward.  He pressed the cloth hard against her nose and mouth.  She struggled longer and harder than he had thought she would.  She even kicked him in the shins before her body went limp.  He kept the cloth over her nose and mouth as he lowered her body to the ground.  Once she was lying in the sand he removed his hand.

He put the bottle of chloroform and the cloth inside a plastic bag that had also been inside the canoe.  He removed his gloves and dropped those in the bag too.  He then took off his clothes and put them in a waterproof bag.  That, too, had come from inside the canoe. 

Standing in only a pair of boxers that were two sizes too small, he looked around.  He jumped when he saw his reflection in the back door’s window.  Then he laughed.  He hurried and loaded Virginia into the canoe.  Then he grabbed the rope tied to the canoe and pulled it with his back facing forward.  Virginia was one hundred twenty-five pounds.  He was glad she had lost twenty pounds in the last six months.  It made the canoe easier to pull.  He had practiced, a month earlier, pulling a similar canoe with one hundred and forty pounds in it.  Those twenty extra pounds made a big difference. 

Chapter 6

He looked both ways down the beach before pulling the canoe into the open beachfront in front of the houses.  Once out there he would be completely exposed.  He knew he had to hurry when crossing that area.  And if it were not for that damn moonlight the beach would be much darker.  He had checked the area for visibility months ago.  Who knew a full moon would be out that night. 

He pulled the canoe as fast as he could across the sand and open beachfront.  Then he quickly shoved it into the water and got in.  The canoe tilted the same way it had when he had practiced.  He picked up the paddle and began paddling as fast as he could.  He glanced down to check on her.  Virginia was lying in the middle of the canoe.  She was in the perfect position.  Their weight was distributed equally.

Far enough out, he thought.  He carefully positioned himself and maneuvered his hands under Virginia’s body.  He lifted her carefully and pushed her over the side of the canoe into the water.  He reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her body from floating away.  He then grabbed her hair and pulled her head up out of the water.  He stared into her face.  He wished she would wake up right then.  He wanted to smack her until she regained consciousness.  It would have given him great pleasure for her to have known what had happened to her and who did it.  

He pushed her head underwater.  If he had just let her lay in the water face down she would have drowned anyway.  But he did not want to take any chances.  He had to be sure.  And he was right for making sure.  She began to move her head.  Her hands began to swing at his hand.  Unlike before, her effort did not last long.  Nor was it that strong. 

Her body went limp again.  He held her head underwater a while longer.  There was no struggle.  That was when he was certain.  She was dead.  He dumped the contents from the bag into the water.  He then filled the bag with water and left it bobbing in the water.

If he had known he would have felt that good about killing her he would have done it a year ago, he thought.  It was nothing like he had thought it would be.  He was not nervous.  He did not feel sick.  He felt relieved.  He felt free.  He watched her body lying face down and drifting away from him.  A smile spread across his face.

Thank you for joining us for Chapters 5 & 6.  Chapter 7 will be available later this week.           

John Martin