Mother And Child

A lovely day for crime

                                            Mother and Child

Now that she is dead we can move on.  The auctioneers will get their part. 

 Byzantine art and Gothic furniture do a brisk and lively business these days in

 the market place.  The children stand to make a pretty sum once the estate is

 settled.  There is much to do.  No one knew the cause, nor do they care, why

 she died.   Her children hated her for no particular reasons.  They conspired to 

dump her body in the river out back after dark but that thought quickly evaporated

 when they realized that would not do.

The authorities needed the body as proof.  The children need everything they can

 get their hands on and want everything they are entitled to.

Mother was simply taking morning tea on the south lawn of the veranda when she

collapsed into her marmaladed toast.  When they found her, she was stiff and gray, 

left cheek squarely planted in the gooey jelly, long pink gown flowing in the wind 

about the iron black table.  It was all very picturesque.  The visual of the estates

giant stone walls, their ancient power, an ominous structure jutting up to the

heavens as she slumped.  A sprinkling of  blue birds drifting up above, leaning on

strong currents of air, as a swift river went raging by, set the humble mood, then

moved on relentlessly as rivers do speaking a language no one knew.

Age 30 is as old, as young, as good as any other age when you die.  Her eldest son,

John did not cry.  He walked calmly over to the gate house where his younger

sisters were already playing in the crisp light of day.  He broke the news to them

gently.  Once informed they told him that they had discovered her about an hour 

earlier.  They shrugged their shoulders and simply said, "We did not tell you

because we figured you were still sleeping." They became instantly angry with

John and demanded that he leave immediately. Their hate was not restricted to the

brother and mother exclusively.  It had no limits.  They despised their father who 

abandoned the family for a 24 year old waitress from the village.  They loathed 

their older brother who was the rightful heir to the estate now that mom was gone

and according to the intestacy legal documents drawn up by father, yet another

reason to hate dad with another layer of unvarnished dark passion.  

John commanded his sisters to leave the region.  He would pay them each large

sums of money to disappear.  Private apartments would be arranged for them were

tossed into the deal to sweeten it and as an added compensation for their

cooperation.

They were young but not dumb.  The girls knew that if they left the house it would

be game over for them.  The war was on.

The sisters wanted the estate for their own ends.  They would have the main house

demolished and replaced with a modern steel and copper structure.  There would

be large clear windows installed along with marble floors and high cathedral 

ceilings made of miniature tiled art in white.  In order for this plan to come to 

fruition, John would have to join his mother.  John did not like tea so coffee will

have to do.  Poison does not discriminate.