Leon arrived shortly later. He was stupefied over the discovery in the living room and bedroom. I told him what happened and he hugged me, trying to make me feel better. I told him of the plan I had conjured up while sitting on the sofa waiting for him and he seemed to like it.
I told him how I wanted to break into the Desperation Mansion tomorrow morning. Possibly hold them up if they were home. Take some of their money, maybe ten million of it. Only half. No more than that. I didn’t want to be too greedy. I was not a megalomaniacal type of person, but ten million dollars would certainly keep us set for life. We wouldn’t have to worry about committing any more crimes. We would have enough money forever. Maybe we would start a life up in Canada afterwards. Those criminals in the movies always try to sneak into Mexico, but never Canada. They wouldn’t be looking for us up there.
But what about Canada? What did I know about it? Not much. I knew that beer was supposedly better up there. There was a red leaf on their flag. I think it was the second largest country in the world, right? They were really big on hockey and they all talked with a weird accent, so we would have to catch up on that pretty quick. And all guns were banned, too, I think. Even police officers weren’t allowed to have them, maybe even their military. That was about all the Canadian information I had. Hopefully I would learn more once I got up there.
“The only thing is,” I said, “we only have one gun, and that’s a rifle. I don’t even know how the hell to work a weapon, so you can use it.”
“Well …” Leon reached into his winter coat pocket “… I have a gun. Now don’t freak out, okay?”
It was a snub nose pistol. The same gun that scum from Walgreens had. The same exact one. My eyes bulged with fear. “Wh-w-what? Why do you have that?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly myself when I … you know, and I must have stuffed it in my pocket afterwards. I found it in my room the next day and just decided to keep it just in case.”
“Okay, fine, I guess I can understand that. But why did you bring it here?”
“You called me saying ‘they’re all dead’ and just hung up! I had no idea what was going on, Kristie. I was afraid. I was worried. What if you were in danger? I had to come prepared.”
I sighed. I knew he was right and there was no use arguing it. I was just still a little freaked out from the sight of the pistol. It reminded me of a demonic shadow you sometimes see on the wall in your bedroom when you’re trying to get some sleep. A very ominous figure indeed.
Leon used to go hunting with his father when he was younger, so he knew how to work a gun. That night he showed me the basics of a rifle. How to load it. How to hold it. How to shoot it. I told myself that I would never shoot it unless I absolutely had to. That would be the only way. If they didn’t hand over the money right away I would just simple leave. No harm, no foul.
We thought about moving the bodies. We even tried to. However, it was too much. The blanket fell off Mom’s face and I puked. I could tell Leon couldn’t handle the smell either, nor the sight. Therefore, we slept in my room that night huddled up together. That was the first time in ages that I did not cry myself to sleep.
The next morning we got up and took a shower. I got dressed in my
regular set of clothes and scavenged all the food in the house together
and put it in a plastic grocery bag. There was not much food, just a
half-empty jar of peanut butter; some pop tarts; and a couple cans of
Pepsi. That would have to do until we went shopping. I did not plan
on ever returning to that apartment, therefore that town. In addition,
the state. The country, too. Leon loved my idea of Canada. As soon
as we got the money, we were going to take his Ford Fiesta up North.
Toronto sounded like a cool place to settle back, maybe Ontario. But
then again, Toronto and Ontario were the only places in Canada we even
knew about. Oh wait, there was a city called Winnipeg, too, right?
That sounded like a cool name. Maybe that would be our new home.
Winnipeg … I liked the sound to it.
There wasn’t a problem getting to the mansion. Just a little
asking around was all it took for directions. We parked at the
beginning of the long, narrow driveway. Sitting in the passenger’s
seat, I pulled up the newspaper and we reread the article for the
hundredth time.
There should have been four people in there. The mom, Ruth; the
dad, Roland; the oldest son, Jimmy; and the youngest son, Johnny. No
real threat, really. It should have been a piece of cake.
That was when a yellow Hummer sped in front of us and down the long
driveway. We watched as two men with guns kicked in the front door and
made their way in.
“What the hell …?” Leon murmured, dumbfounded.
“Who are they?” I wondered.
“I don’t know …”
“Maybe we should just call this off.”
“No … we need this money, Kristie. Just stay here and I’ll go in.”
“What? No, you’re nuts. I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not. Either I go in by myself or I don’t go in at all.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Because I wouldn’t be able to live without you,” he simply replied.
“And what makes you think I’d be able to live without you?”
Leon smiled and kissed me. “Just stay here, love. Alright? I’ll
get the money and be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
“Okay, Uma Thurman,” I laughed.
He looked down at his small snub nose pistol. “I should have a
fucking shotgun,” he said, and winked at me. Leon jogged towards the
mansion and kicked open the already broken front door.
I could hear screaming in the mansion. People were arguing.
Always with the damn arguing. When would it end? I rocked back and
forth and prayed for my Leon.
I saw the back door to the Hummer swing open and a man holding a
pistol stepped out. He looked around and speed walked into the
mansion. Shit, that couldn’t be good. Not at all.
I didn’t care what Leon had said. I was not just going to sit
there while he died. I had to do something, and fast. I couldn’t
think of some kind of clever plan quick enough so instead I just
grabbed the rifle in the backseat and stepped out of the Ford Fiesta.
Without putting too much thought into it, I charged towards the
mansion. Ten feet away from the porch, I ran straight on a patch of
ice, causing my body to fly upwards and gravity to push my finger into
the trigger.
A gunshot echoed throughout the area and shattered the picture window in front of Desperation Mansion.
Shit … that couldn’t be good either.
