BAD TRIP SOUTH by Billie Sue Mosiman Read Free Book Online

first if either one of you try to get smart with me.”
    Before Heddy returned with food, the Anderson family members were subdued. Jay and Carrie lay on one bed on their sides facing the door. Emily sat upright in the chair in the corner by the window. Her hands lay in her lap and her ankles dangled off the chair seat edge.
    Heddy came in with two boxes of pizza and a bag containing two cold liters of Pepsi. “Good job!” She said, seeing the family so motionless and silent.
    Crow turned down the volume on the television. “God, I could eat one of those pizzas whole, all by myself.”
    To the family’s horror, after the pizza had been shared and eaten, Heddy and Crow started discussing leaving the two adults tied to trees in a wooded area outside of town and taking the kid with them the next day.
    Carrie, too frightened of the plan to be afraid for her own welfare, protested vehemently. “Let us all go,” she pleaded. “What you’re talking about is crazy.”
    “ She’s kind of cute, huh?” Crow asked Heddy. “Listen, lady, we might just keep you all too. Don’t butt in.”
    “ You could get a boner for her? I think she’s kind of fat.”
    Crow shrugged.
    “ On the other hand, her husband’s not bad looking...”
    “ You want him? Take him. It might be fun seeing a guy get it from a woman.”
    “ Oh god,” Carrie said, turning her face into the pillow. “You are sick people.”
    “ You’re a couple of real animals, you know that?” Jay said. “You’ve got the morals of weasels.”
    “ Take the girl into the bathroom and let her sit on the floor a while,” Heddy said to Crow. “Her daddy needs a lesson in humility from a weasel.”
    #

    THAT night when Heddy found a room things got really awful. They took me into the bathroom and set me against the tub on the floor. I heard everything. The sounds of someone slapping someone. The bed noise, creaking and shaking. There was a lot of laughing and my Mama was crying for a while, but I think they must have put a gag in her mouth because I didn’t hear her later. Daddy said stuff to them, really mean stuff, but they hit him again--I heard him grunt in pain--and he didn’t say another word the whole time.
    I could have tried to listen in to one of their thoughts, but I was afraid to. I didn’t want to really know what was happening. I could tell it was pretty awful.
    I don’t know if Heddy...did things...with my Daddy, but whatever they did that night it changed everything.
    I was brought out late, maybe after midnight, and they made me a place on the floor with a pillow and a sheet over me. My hands and feet were tied, but I slept a little. I tried to lift my head to see Mama and Daddy, but I couldn’t see over the mattress. After a while I heard Crow snoring, but I never knew if Heddy slept or not. The TV was on all night, turned down low. Maybe she was watching it. I couldn’t see it from the floor, but I listened for a long time, thinking maybe the news would come on and say they were about to find Crow and Heddy. I fell asleep during a commercial show about an exercise machine. I never did hear any news.
    The next morning after Heddy brought us donuts and coffee, we were untied and told to go to the bathroom, we were leaving and we weren’t stopping again for a long time. Heddy said she didn’t want to stop until she got to her mom’s house.
    Daddy and Mama looked so different. It was like Daddy’s mind had slipped over the edge to peek at something gross he’d never seen before and couldn’t figure out once he did see it. He wasn’t all there. I looked at him, trying to see into his mind, but he was closed off, sealed in. His eyes darted like little lizards as he stared at the floor. He hardly ever looked up except to see where he was going. He wouldn’t look at me. Or Mama. No one.
    Mama just looked sad, the way she used to after her and Daddy had had a fight and he’d hit her. She wouldn’t look at me either.
    Crow and Heddy acted