Dark Angel
Sweat was pouring down the woman’s face. It was 98 degrees outside and the fan she had pointed at herself did nothing to cool her down, it only managed to move the hot air around. She placed her hand on the huge bump and prayed that her baby would be all right. The baby had not moved since the previous night and not even the Kajun music she played earlier had the little mite stir once. She hated being alone in the home, but her husband was at work and his teenage children out on their own adventures. Her stepson came home the previous night reeking of marijuana and when he caught her staring at him he nodded in the direction of the back door. She knew her husband would kill he if he caught her smoking the stuff while she was pregnant, but the bastard did not have to sit at home all day without air-conditioning, no he was working in an airconditioned studio , getting fat on studio food and hobknobbing with sexy starlets, so fuck him, she needs this so can chill for a while.
Sitting on the back step with William she felt more relaxed and the sudden breeze made the dampness on her skin evaporate, leaving her cooler. William rolled a marijuana cigarette for them, lit it and took the first puff before handing it to her. She sucked at it deeply and felt it fill her head and lungs. The taste was horrible but the feeling it gave her was glorious. Yes, fuck Dan the Man, she did not want a baby anyway, but he would not wait for her to go on the pill. He was also sure that he could no longer make anyone pregnant, because there had been no ‘accidents’ in the 17 years since his son was born and he had many lovers since his wife left him.
She was nervous about telling Dan that she was pregnant. She had heard it all before; the younger woman and older man, a man with money and the girl from the ghetto. Of course everybody will say she trapped him by falling pregnant, but God alone knows she didn’t. She was barely 20 when she met Dan. He had money and she wanted some fun, not a big belly and swollen feet. Dan did not react the way she expected him to; after staring at her for a minute he jumped up, lifted her off her feet and kissed her face. For the rest of the night he could not talk about anything else but their baby, but the next day he went back to work and since then they had the odd shopping trip to go buy some baby stuff and that is all.
With the cool night time air on her face and the effect of the marijuana she suddenly felt happy again, happy and sleepy. She had not even prepared Dan’s meal yet and she knew she had just about an hour left before he would come stomping through the front door. Lifting herself off the step she waddled into the kitchen. There was still some chicken left from the previous night which she deftly flocked into a mixed salad and then tossed after she added some French salad dressing. She cut two pieces of rye bread, buttered it and placed it on the edge of the plate before she covered it. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen and she waddled as fast as she could to the lounge and the couch where she sat earlier.
Sweat started pouring down her face again and she cursed Dan for not getting the maintenance man out to repair their air conditioning. Another sharp pain shot through her body so badly that she jumped up. In doing so water started streaming down her brown legs and she knew then that she was in labour.
“William, William… call your father, tell him to come home immediately … I am in labour.”
“What did you say…” William looked perplexed.
“The baby is coming… phone your father and tell him to come home immediately.
She had a bag packed, well at least there were some nighties for her, a oncie for the baby and a couple of nappies. She had no idea what she needed to take to give birth. Afterall, she had not done it before. She asked Dan as he had two kids before, but he said they could talk about it later and nodded off in front of the television. Now there was no time left. Oh well, Dan could run to the shop and get her what she needed, afterall, he was not the one giving birth.
They reached the hospital about half an hour later and there was no time for anything. She could feel the pressure and the only way she could keep herself from pushing that little stranger out of her body was to bite down on a hankerchief.
Bianca-May was born twenty minutes after they reached the hospital. The little creature had curly black hair and large brown eyes and when she finally gave a yell every person in the birthing room turned to look at her.
“My word, what a healthy pair or lungs on that one…” one of the nurses said before she wrapped the little bundle tightly and put her next to her mother.
The woman looked at her daughter and the daughter looked at the mother and then the little person started screaming again, the red toothless mouth wide open and the woman backed away.
“No, no sweetie, hold your baby, she needs to feel the security of her mother’s body.”
Reluctantly the woman took the bundle and cradled it to her chest, but the baby would not stop screaming. Dan stepped forward, took the baby and cradled her to his chest. Within seconds the child was quiet.
As the child grew the woman knew instinctively that she was no normal little girl. Men and boys flocked to her and in their company she was sweet and cute, but alone with her mother she was a horror. Even her grandmother felt her wrath when she kicked her grandmother one evening because she did not pull her feet away so the little madam could pass unhindered.
By the time the little one was six years old the woman could not see any reason for her to hang around anymore. Dan’s older children had all taken off and were leading their own lives, Dan still worked all the time and the young madam looked at her with disdain and treated her like a servant.
One night the woman packed a suitcase and once Dan had left with their daughter to drop her off to school and then on to work, she took her suitcase and locked the front door behind her.
In the big family home life continued like before. Dan gave his daughter breakfast, took her to school, made her dinner and tucked her into bed. Over weekends he took her to the park or horse riding or whatever she chose to do. Neither of them ever spoke about her mother again.
One day Dan noticed that his daughter was no longer a little girl but had instead turned into a long legged young woman. Boys had come calling before, but he paid very little attention while they played computer games, ran around in the garden or splashed in the pool he had installed. Suddenly he noticed that the boys were no longer playing computer games or chased his daughter around the garden, but instead they sat huddled together talking in low voices.
One boy in particular stood out to him, Andre. Andre was tall and well built for his age. Tanned, with dark eyes and long hair Andre not only looked more mature than the other boys who came around whether with some of his daughter’s girl friends or on their own. Finally Dan gathered up the courage to ask his daughter about Andre. She was not very forthcoming with information other than to say that he was a grade ahead of her at school. He then asked her whether Andre was her boyfriend but she just shrugged and stuffed her mouth full of food.
A week or two later he saw her wearing a chain from which dangled the letters A and B… he assumed it was for Andre and Bianca-May and he assumed that they were indeed dating. It scared him a little as he had not yet had ‘the talk’ with his daughter. That same night he phoned his other daughter, who was now in her early thirties and mother or two young ones, and he asked her to talk to Bianca-May. How the talk went he never found out as Bianca never mentioned anything. He asked his older daughter and she also just shrugged.
Andre came around more and more often and it was not long before he noticed a change in both Andre and Bianca. Both of them started wearing black clothes and the normal pop music made way for some stuff which thumped and droned on and on.
One night the music was so loud that they did not hear him come home. He found them in the kitchen and at first he could not understand what they were doing, but when he cleared his throat and his daughter lifted her head to look at him, he could feel himself go pale. A trickle of blood was running from the corner of her mouth and as he looked down he could see a thin cut across Andre’s wrist.
‘What on earth are you doing?” he bellowed across the room
“Lifeblood Dad.. go Google it…’” Bianca turned away from him and bent her head back down towards Andre’s wrist.
“No, I am sorry, not in my house…’
Bianca looked up, her eyes empty and devoid of any emotion.
“Okay, fine, we’ll leave…’ Bianca gathered her jacket and nodded at Andre to follow her. Only after they left Dan realized it was already past ten and way too late for a schoolgirl to be out on a week day. Dan decided to talk to his daughter the next day, looked in the oven for the food his housekeeper would have left for him and proceeded to eat. He was already reading in bed when he heard Bianca return.
The following morning as he walked into the kitchen he noticed that Bianca’s book bag was gone. He called out to her and got no reply. She had obviously decided not to wait for him and walk to school.
When he got home that evening Bianca was stretched out on the sofa watching television.
“Have you eaten yet?’ He was hoping that she hadn’t and that they could have a meal together, perhaps they could talk over a meal… but she barely looked at him when she said yes, she had eaten, before looking back at the television.
He did not see Andre again either. Dan assumed that both Bianca and Andre were embarrassed about being caught doing something weird and he left it at that. Kids do try strange things sometimes.
It was about three months later and winter was fast approaching. It was particularly damp and cold when he got home. Although he had the air conditioning and heating seen to many times over the years it still did not work properly. Bianca was lying on her favorite sofa wrapped up in a blanket reading a book.
“I think I should make a fire for us in the fireplace… it will take some of the damp out as well…”
Bianca did not look up from her book but grunted something like “okay”
Dan went to get some firewood in the basement, but as he dumped it next to the fireplace he realized he did not bring one of the old newspapers from the basement.
“Bianca, please do your old father a favour and go get us an old newspaper from the basement..”
Without a word Bianca got up and minutes later returned with a newspaper. Dan proceeded to take a few pages to wipe the sides of the fireplace before scrunching other pages into little balls to place under the wood. Taking the next page out a familiar face stared back at him. It was Andre. Bianca had returned to her book and he stared back at the page. In big bold letters the heading read; “Local 16 year old disappears after a trip to a local grocer.” Dan could feel himself turn pale and his hands shake a little when he turned to Bianca.
“Bianca, why didn’t you tell me Andre went missing?’
“Why should I?”
“Geez girl, he is someone’s kid, he was your boyfriend… maybe I could have gone to see his parents, maybe I could have offered my help somehow…”
“I don’t think there is anything you can do..”
“What do you mean? If it was my child who went missing I would have accepted every little bit of help I could get…”
“Good Lord Bianca, did the cops come talk to you? You were his girlfriend after all…”
“Yes, they came to the school…”
“Well, what happened?’
“They asked me whether I knew where he was and I told them I didn’t.”
“Are you sure Bianca? Didn’t he say something to you? Don’t you know who else he hung out with… anything?
“No, how should I know anything? I was here at home and his mom sent him to the store… it had nothing to do with me.”
By the time Bianca left school to go to college a year later Andre was all but forgotten. Every now and then Dan would stop at a service station and see a missing flyer with the boy’s face, but other than that it would have been easy to forget that the boy ever existed. Bianca never spoke about him again.
After six months at college Bianca brought another boy home. This time it was yet another tall, dark lad by the name of Salvador, but unlike Andre, Salvador was a well mannered young man who included Dan in their conversations and even offered to order pizza for their movie night, Dan was very surprised, he expected the couple to go out, but he gratefully accepted Salvador’s offer. The months without Bianca in the house were lonely and quiet. The second film had barely started when Bianca excused herself and went up to her room. Dan and Salvador watched the next movie without Bianca. By the time Bianca and Salvador left Sunday afternoon Dan had decided that he liked and approved of Salvador and he quietly hoped that the relationship would last.
When Bianca came home for the next college break she came home alone. Dan asked her about Salvador on the second day and she shrugged and said that he likely went home to his parents.
Many young men passed through Bianca’s life since Andre and Salvador but none lasted longer than the other. Bianca graduated and found a job in New York. Dan was sad, he hoped she would find something a little closer, but now she was an adult and there was nothing he could do but wish her luck and ask her to promise to come visit and not forget about her father.
Bianca called regularly to tell him about her job and Dan learned that she rose through the ranks in her company fairly fast. Regardless of her promises Bianca did not make plans to visit her father and each time he asked her she had a variety of excuses, ranging from work to events she had to attend. Dan did not want to complain too much as he feared she would stop calling as well.
Five years had passed since Bianca left for New York when disaster struck in their little home town. A storm was brewing and lightning had struck a pylon which toppled onto an abandoned factory and the place went up in flames. Unfortunately, unbeknown to anyone, there were still some old gas bottles in a locked storeroom, an explosion ensued and a nearby building caught fire. At first the police thought that there were no casualties but on the third day after the fire they found the body of a man in one of the buildings, likely a homeless person who slept there that night. Fearing that there may be others or that the structures would collapse further the council decided to demolish what was left.
Dan decided to take a detour one day after work to see how far the council got with the demolition and cleaning up. As Dan approached he was surprised to see a number of flashing blue lights. As he got closer he noticed the yellow tape across the road and around the old abandoned factory. Dan knew about the homeless man but his body had been removed days before.
Dan was about to stop and turn around when he saw a figure approach his vehicle. It was Dozer Brown, Lieutenant Dozer Brown from CBI. Dan and Dozer had been at school together and were friends until they drifted apart after his divorce from his first wife. Dozer’s wife was very close to his first wife and Dan assumed that she felt she was being disloyal to her friend had they stayed friends with Dan.
“Hi Dan, what are you doing here?’
“Ah I was on my way home and thought I would take a detour and come see how far the guys got with the cleaning up process. As you know I have about three years before retirement and I was thinking that maybe now old man Jacobs would sell me one of these lots at a reasonable price. I am thinking of putting up a little woodworking business, kitchen cupboards and the like… but what are you guys doing here? I thought that the homeless guy’s death was an accident..”
“Yes it was, the poor sod fell asleep and was overcome by smoke and then the fire. However once the demolition started we discovered something far worse… five bodies under the floorboards of that old building over there. It is hard to tell, some of them had been there a long time, but at this stage it looks like five young men. The strange thing is that each one of them are clutching a chain bearing some kind of initials, the one has AB, the other SB, CB and so on… it is going to be a difficult one to solve, no one has any clue as to who they are yet or how they came to be there, but hopefully our forensic team will be able to come up with something.”
Dan felt his stomach lurch and could feel his hand shaking as he put his car in gear.
It was near midnight when he lifted the gun to his head, He could not live with what he knew and nor could he bring himself so far as to betray his daughter.
Copyright: Lynne L 2022