Tall, Dark & Lonely

“No, he killed your wife and child. The right is yours.”

“Thank you,” Marc’s voice broke. He lunged at Nichols and stabbed him repeatedly. Blood soon covered the wall and Marc. Still he didn’t stop. He didn’t stop even when the gurgling ceased.

Ephraim’s hand flashed out suddenly, faster than anything he's ever seen in his life and grabbed the knife. “That’s enough.”

Marc looked up at Ephraim, stunned. He took a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s go home,” Marc said in a confused voice. He was clearly lost in his grief.

Ephraim nodded. It was the last place he wanted to be or belonged, but he would do it for his brother. He was clearly hurting.

“For now.”

Chapter 1

Rascal, New Hampshire

2009

“But what if she doesn’t like me?” Joshua asked.

“Yeah, what if she doesn’t like us?” Jill decided to ask, giving credence to Joshua’s question.

Madison swore under her breath. She was going to have to take Jill aside and remind her that a fifteen year old shouldn’t add to a ten year old boy’s fear. Now Joshua was going to start crying, again.

After four days on the road with her siblings and mother, Madison was ready to flee from the car, screaming. This trip couldn’t end fast enough and apparently it wouldn’t. She had a feeling that the U-haul trailer attached to the back of her car was the reason.

She shot another annoyed look at her mother who was curled up in the passenger seat of the small beat up car with the latest gossip rag that Madison paid for of course. Her mother was broke and never worked more than a day at any job she ever held.

Candy, that’s what her mother liked to be called. Her real name was Emma and she hated it. She hated everything about herself unless a man liked it. That’s how she ran her life and the lives of her three children. If a man liked it then it was okay. If the man didn’t then Candy took it upon herself to make the change happen and if it didn’t god help them all, because her mother was not above throwing a tantrum, yelling, hitting or manipulating her three children.

Madison took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head. She was pissed and for good reason. After twenty-three years of hell Madison thought that she was finally going to make a real break for it. Candy promised to sign over custody of the kids. This time she was going to do it. Madison couldn’t wait. She had money in the bank, her college degree and plans. She was moving out of their trailer, their dumpy broken down crowded trailer, and taking her brother and sister with her. Her mother had agreed.

Hell, Candy practically threw a fit and demanded Madison take them years ago. It was her turn for a real life she said. Madison owed it to her. After all it was all Madison’s fault this happened in the first place. Her mother would have been a model by now if she hadn’t got pregnant at sixteen. Candy believed Madison owed her gratitude for not getting an abortion and she reminded Madison of that at every opportunity.

The only clue to Madison’s father’s identity was that she was clearly half Native American. Her hair was jet black and her skin was naturally tanned and she had brown eyes that reminded people of caramel. That gave her mother the only clue to her paternity. Thankfully her mother was a racist and only “slummed” with a colored boy, what she called everyone that wasn’t pure white, once. So, her father was Andrew Soloman, a boy from the local tribe. Unfortunately, he died after Madison was born. He wanted to raise Madison and Candy had been overjoyed to get rid of her burden.

When Madison’s father died in a house fire Candy threw a fit and stormed out of her mother’s house. She took her infant daughter and headed out on the road towards California, but only made it as far as the next state over. There she began a life of worthless jobs, welfare, affairs with married men and drugs. They traveled all over the country until Jill came along and then they settled in New Mexico where Madison took over the care of her siblings and ran the house, well, trailer.

Madison had counted the days down until she was eighteen and could escape her mother. She never planned on leaving her siblings, but she desperately needed to get away from her mother and her manipulative ways.

Candy dreaded her daughter’s eighteenth birthday. It meant her freedom to run around would come to an abrupt end. She would have to find a job or someone else to take care of the kids. So, when the morning of Madison’s eighteenth birthday came, Candy did what every self-respecting woman would do when faced with real responsibility for the first time in fifteen years would do.

She hightailed it out of there.

She left a note for Madison of course. She wished her a happy birthday and thanked her for taking care of the kids. She found her true love and was heading to Vegas to be with him. Madison didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She finally rid herself of her mother, but was now faced with supporting her two siblings sooner than expected.

So, for the past five years Madison raised her little brother and sister. No one missed their mother. In truth, Madison played mother to them both since birth. Candy took on the role of the older sister who didn’t like her siblings very much and was never there. Everyone has a role to play after all.

Madison took on menial jobs to put herself through college as well as put food on the table and clothes on their backs. She avoided her real life. Her only friends were from the Reservation where she spent her free time when she had any. There was no time for boyfriends. Well, no steady boyfriends. She was afraid of turning into her mother so she refused to allow herself to get serious about anyone.

Candy fell in love with every man she met. She became obsessive and pathetic and Madison was not her mother. Any man she started to care for was pushed away. It was safer that way.

Less than two weeks ago Madison started her new job as a history teacher at a public high school. Everything was going perfect for the first time in her life and then Candy swoops in.

Joshua woke her up at three in the morning crying. A drunk woman was puking in their living room/kitchen/dining room/Joshua’s bedroom. Madison went to the aforementioned room with a baseball bat and cursed. Candy was back.

Candy was back with a vengeance it seemed. Stewart the man she ran off with five years ago never married her. They lived in hotels all over the country. Candy loved it. She had pictures and of course magnets from every state except for those in New England, Hawaii, and Alaska of course. She hated New England, refused to return to it.

Everything was going fine until Stewart discovered Candy was not a natural blond. She bleached it. Madison knew of course and thought it was obvious. Apparently Stewart hadn't realized her mother's golden locks came from a box. He didn’t realize a lot of things like Candy was not her real name and she was not twenty-eight but thirty-nine, which again Madison thought was obvious, so he started screwing around. Candy came home one night from a club to find Stewart “Breaking her heart by f**king that whore Jennifer from the strip club on their bed of love.” Candy actually used those words to her and the two younger children, repeatedly.

Madison refused to allow her mother’s presence to alter her plans. She demanded that her mother sign the custody papers. She refused, saying she missed the kids. She loved them. Then she applied for welfare and was refused. Seems the state of New Mexico was no longer willing to give her a free ride. So, Candy inquired about New Hampshire. They were very willing to give her funds only because Candy’s mother was a resident and Candy had been claiming residence there for the past five years. That surprised Madison.