The Birth of Bane by Richard Heredia Read Free Book Online Page B

her about
the waist.
    I shook my head
at my sister, unsure if I should be irritated with her, or feel
sorry for her.
    The tears in her
eyes were no joking mater. Something was bothering her, and in a
big way.
    Still, hurting
Eli’s feelings wasn’t the answer either.
    I just left. I
stepped away, walking toward my room and the letter I’d been
writing to Myra.
    I was halfway up
the stairs when I heard her scream at the top of her
lungs.
    “ I hate this
house!”
     
    *****
     
    Weeks passed
uneventfully.
    Eli traipsed
about, having forgotten the whole “shoe incident”, harboring no ill
will toward Valerie. In fact, as the days progressed, his
temperament mirrored my mother’s. He seemed most happy when he was
at home, cavorting about the house or in one of the various yards.
There were technically three – the front, the back and the side
yard, which was dominated by the deck, though there was still
enough room for a six-year-old to find adventure.
    On one such
occasion, I’d come home from school and found him searching the
environs beneath the deck with the scrutiny of an archeologist on
the ebb of a monumental find. He was crab-walking, hunched even
more than that deformed man of Notre Dame, his eyes inspecting
every square of the ground before him.
    “ What’cha
doin’?” I had asked. I’d been looking for him for nearly fifteen
minutes. It was time for him to bathe – or so my mom had instructed
– and I was chosen to be the bearer of bad tidings.
    “ Hunting for
treasure,” he said distractedly. An exasperated shrug followed,
telling me I should’ve known what he was doing by mere
observation.
    The little
scamp!
    “ What makes you
think there’s treasure down here?” I had to ask. It was too
intriguing. I was curious to hear his answer. Eli oftimes had
doozies that sent me laughing aloud for hours.
    “ Because, Jerry, she told me there was treasure down here,”
was his succinct reply.
    I frowned. I had
not expected that. I tilted my head to one side. “What she? Who are
you talking about, Elijah?”
    “ The lady… She
told me it was a game.” He continued to gaze around the
support-posts, poke his fingers through age-old cobwebs. “I like
games.”
    I watched him
for a few moments longer, not entirely at ease with what he had
said. He was way too focused, like he was consumed by the idea
“she” had planted in his mind. Eli kept on, edging around the
concrete piles in the ground, shoving dirt and leaves and sand this
way and that.
    I recalled what
our mother had said, shaking myself from my brother’s odd behavior.
“Mom said it’s time for you to take a bath.”
    Eli huffed
through pinched lips, making them vibrate loudly. “Tell her I’ll
take one later. I’m busy.”
    I chuffed. “Naw,
man, you tell her. You’re on your own now that I’ve told you
what she wants.” I made to leave.
    Behind me,
Elijah clicked the roof of his mouth. “Alright, alright, I’m
coming.”
    “ Thought you’d
see the light,” I muttered not turning back, though I heard his
small footfalls following.
    None of us like
facing my mother’s wrath. Not one of us.
    It was quite
some time before I truly understood what was transpiring with my
little brother that late afternoon. Whether or not he ever found
the “treasure” I never knew either. Though I’d seen him on the side
yard many times, he never mentioned it to me again.
     
    Valerie stayed
in her room for the most part, watching MTV or some ridiculous
sitcom that was more annoying than funny. She was no doubt lying
low, trying to stay out from underfoot.
    My mom had
already employed a landscaper by then and Julio, our gardener, a
had started the week before, so the square acre about the house was
beginning to look less like the foothills of Kilimanjaro and more
like a normal, suburban patch typical of Highland Park.
    I had to admit,
there was a small part of me that really hated to see the jungle at
1052 Lincoln Drive disappear, because it was