Eridan15

ERIDAN 15Short story“I… Inside, to the left, third row, third grave,” Eddie said.Jean Baptiste punched him in the gut with the knuckles. Eddie collapsed and puked.“You better not fuck with me, Crazy Eddie,’ Jean Baptiste said. He kicked Eddie’s back.“I’m not, I’m not,” Eddie cried.Jean Baptiste snorted. He straightened his shirt and kicked open the gates. By the light ofthe moon he found his way. Eddie crawled after him, sobbing.Mammy Eleanor’s grave was a dark hole in the ground. Jean Baptiste cursed as he got inthe hole. He opened the lid of the casket and looked down into it. Then he reached hisright arm into the casket and tried to feel for the bags supposedly between Mammy’slegs. When he found nothing he turned around and Eddie saw the fury in his light eyes.“You miserable shit, you…” Jean Baptiste tried to step out of the hole, but black tressesof hair suddenly wrapped around his neck. He grabbed his neck and struggled, but morehair wrapped around his arms and head and now Mammy’s thin arms, her hands likeclaws reached around his waist and dug deep into the flesh of his abdomen. Jean Baptistescreeched and his arms flailed as he fell backwards into the casket.“Come to Mammy!”Eddie heard a deep hunger in Mammy’s voice, the kind of hunger that raised the hair onthe back of his neck. He saw Jean Baptiste struggling to get up, Mammy’s face close tohis neck, her teeth red as blood. She looked at Eddie, one quick moment, her eyes largeand black, and hissed: “Close it!”Eddie scrambled to the edge of the grave and kicked the lid of the casket closed. He thenpushed most of the earth back onto the casket and frantically pushed as much sand anddirt onto the grave as he could. He heard Jean Baptiste’s screams until he shoveled theremainder of the earth on Mammy’s grave.Then he ran. He ran all the way to City Park where he collapsed on a bench.Crazy Eddie woke with sunlight on his face and the sound of a car horn. When heopened his eyes the sky was blue, the air was fresh and last night was a distant nightmare.His eyes opened wide as he saw a familiar black 1964 Buick Wildcat Convertible nearthe curb. Again the horn sounded.He got up. His stomach and back still felt sore and his legs reminded him that he ranfor many miles without pause. He blinked a couple of times to see who was behind thewheel, but the sun in his eyes made that difficult.He stumbled a bit closer and saw the door open. An old, slender woman with long, blackhair, that seemed to have a life of its own, got out.Crazy Eddie looked at her and shook his head. “Mammy? Is that you?”The woman smiled. She had Mammy’s teeth alright.28