Color of Loneliness by Madeleine Beckett Read Free Book Online

shouts as she hears a gurgling sound. Screaming obscenities, she jumps back as water cascades over the toilet bowl and onto the floor, splashing her socked feet. “This cannot be happening,” she mumbles under her breath.
    After numerous unsuccessful plunging attempts, she finally gets the water in the toilet to go down. She uses every towel she owns to mop up the mess on the floor. Carrying the soaked, heavy towels to the basement, she throws them into the washing machine.
    Once she gets a load started, she turns and looks around. No visible light enters the two small windows; a thick layer of dirt and cobwebs, and what looks like bushes on the outside, completely masks them both. Dirt and dust cover the concrete floor. A single bulb hanging in the center of the room serves as the only light. Several standing racks of shelving units filled with paint cans, bug sprays, and an assortment of boxes covered in dust line the walls.
    The creepy-looking basement looks like something straight out of a horror film. Afraid that at any minute something might jump out and grab her, Myra, with her heart racing, makes a mad dash for the staircase. Hanging on tightly to the railing, her wide, frightened eyes watch the basement behind her as she quickly scrambles up the rickety stairs.
    * * *
    Myra picks up her cell and dials her friend.
    “Myra…” Susie says before she coughs and wheezes loudly in Myra’s ear. “I am so sick. I’m dying.”
    “You sound terrible. What’s wrong?” Myra patiently waits as Susie proceeds to practically cough up a lung in her ear.
    “Tucker was sick last week with the flu. I think he caught it at school or something. So I disinfected the shit out of everything and bragged about how I never get sick, and now…” Susie stops again to hack some more. “It just hit me all of a sudden, out of nowhere. And I’ve had vomiting and diarrhea to top it off. It’s been coming out both ends, at the same time. I’ve had to sit on the crapper with the trash can in my lap barfing and shitting simultaneously. And I’ve had to change my drawers like five times because I shit myself. No, I meant to say I’ve had to throw away five pairs of rotten cottons because no way in hell am I touching those putrid, shitty things. Instead of Jeff running to buy me drugs, he’s going to have to make a panty run,” Susie says with a giggle which turns into another massive coughing spell.
    Myra laughs while Susie coughs. “You poor thing. I wish I was there. I can’t do anything to help.”
    “You do not want to be anywhere near me right now, trust me. Oh God, the hurl is here. I gotta go,” she says hurriedly before immediately hanging up.
    * * *
    At two o’clock on the nose, Myra hears the sound of tires crunching on the gravel of her driveway. When she opens the door, she just stands there with her mouth slightly gaping, frozen and unable to move as she stares at the contractor.
    His brow furrows and his eyes flash with anger. “You wanted an estimate?” he asks in a gruff voice.
    She straightens her shoulders. “Oh, oh yes, please come in,” she says, moving to the side so he can pass. He towers over her as his tall, lean frame enters her living room.
    Once again, her ability to speak seems to have disappeared. Continuing to gawk at him and tugging on the hem of her sweater, she clears her throat, trying to get her voice back. “I’m probably going to need a new roof,” she says in a timid voice as she gestures with her hand and starts walking towards the stairs. “It’s leaking upstairs in the master bedroom so, I’ll show you,” she mumbles as she turns her head for a quick peek to see if he’s following her.
    She prays she doesn’t fall up the stairs.
    Somehow she manages to make it to the master bedroom without embarrassing herself. “Right there,” she says as she points to the ceiling in the corner.
    Cold eyes meet hers. “I’ll need to get up on the roof to take a look.”
    “There’s a