Page 12 of Devil's Crossroad

I go back to the living room, pick up the chaps, and go to the kitchen and take a knife to them. Then, I go into the laundry room and put them in the washer with the T-shirts. Yes, it overloads the washer, but oh well. Tonka just overloaded me with too much shit. By the time I finish, I am humming a tune.

I go into the living room and pick up the bat. I walked into the man cave where the seventy-two-inch television is on the wall, and I could picture Tonka’s face on the front of that television. The TV was a present from me this past Christmas. I gave my best impersonation of Ted Williams, Tonka’s favorite baseball player. The screen shattered, and the thing fell off the wall. I made sure to whack the television where the controls were located.

My next victim was all the old Boston Red Sox memorabilia that Tonka collected, and I helped to buy it for him. I took it out in three swings. I walked to the bar to pick up my favorite bottle of Patron and sat it a safe distance from the bar, and then I destroyed the other bottles of expensive liquor that Tonka shared with his brothers when they came over and watched games with him. I never knew killing years of collecting things could be so much fun. I laughed out loud and then took the top off the bottle of tequila and took a big drink. Oh yes, much better. I picked the bottle up and carried it with me. I’m going to need more of that.

As I walked through the house, anything that could be broken with a swing from the bat got one of my best swings. Replacing the glass and breakables in this house will cost Tonka a pretty penny. I stopped off in the living room and get the bucket of paints, and I made sure it wasn’t the water-based paint but the good stuff. I went in and went to the kitchen and get the most giant butcher knife I could find.

I went to the bedroom, opened one can of the paint, threw it on the comforter on our shared bed, pulled it off the bed, got plenty of color on the carpet, and did the same thing to the sheets. I loved those sheets. They were so soft, no crying over old sheets. That’s when I took the knife to the mattress. No bitch will be fucking my man in that bed. Then, I destroyed all the mirrors in the bedrooms and bathrooms. I looked at my watch. I don’t want to get caught in here. I didn’t think that Tonka would appreciate my redecorating skills. I took another big drink of my tequila.

Next, I moved to the living room and all the furniture we picked out and then to the kitchen. I broke all the dishes in the cabinet and emptied the freezer and refrigerator of all the food I had to take the time and shop for. I dump all of it in trash bags except for the liquids or anything that could be used for redecorating the kitchen. Then I pick up the trash bags, go to the back door, and put it in the trash can by the back door. It would start smelling good by tomorrow.

I heard the washer buzzer go off, so I walked back into the laundry room, put the things out of the washer, in the dryer, and put it on its hottest setting.

I walked back to the kitchen and drank some more of the tequila. I take all the liquids, softened butter, sour cream, and cheese dip, and splatter the walls with it. I’d hate to have to clean this kitchen by tomorrow.

I walked to the spare rooms with the other bucket of paint and my bat and did my thing.

I was tired and needed to leave, so I went to the kitchen, took a steak knife, and left the keys. I almost forgot the bottle I had been drinking. What the hell? He would need a good drink when he got home. I went to the refrigerator, slid it forward, and unplugged it. I left the key on the cabinet and then returned to the garage.

Sitting in our garage was Tonka’s baby, as he called the 1969 Camaro. I walked around the car, running the steak knife over the brand-new paint job, and then took the brake fluid and poured it across the hood and the trunk of the vehicle. I walked to the driver’s side, opened the door, and cut the seats up. I left the knife in the car along with my wedding rings. Then I was done. He told me I got to go with what I brought into the marriage, and so did he. What it would take him to do all the repairs on everything, we would about be even to what I kicked in to make the down payment on the house.

I left that house that day, and I never looked back. I went to the one place that night that I knew that Tonka would never find me and slept. The following day, I went to the bank and closed out my account and what we had in the savings account that we shared, and then I left that town and never looked back. There was no going back after that. Before I left the state, I stopped and rented a post office box, found a divorce lawyer, and had him draw up the divorce papers. I paid for it with the money from that savings account I cleaned out. He could have the house if I never saw his face again. I had worked through most of my anger and was just done. I would lick my wounds and be a stronger woman that no man can ever deceive or throw away like yesterday’s trash.

I don’t know what happened to me that day that I knew Tonka was through with me. A woman scorned, or a woman driven crazy by the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with. I was changed that day. It’s like my heart froze. All the goodness and sweet side of me was just gone. Betrayal will do that to a woman. The only love and integrity I had in me was gone, or so I thought. I burnt those bridges so there would be no going back.

I left Texas in my rearview mirror, and I headed for Oklahoma and some friends I had that didn’t have anything to do with the world that Tonka and I had made for ourselves—friends who never were mine and who were not loyal to me.

Once I arrived there, I called my family. I knew that once Dad heard Tonka’s side of the story, he would be pissed for me, him, and the rest of my family. I didn’t want a war starting over me or about me. I explained everything to Mom, and when Dad arrived home, he called me, and I explained to him. There would be a war, but because of the disrespect that Tonka showed to Dad and his club, my entire family.

I wouldn't say I liked the idea of a war, but I knew it was inevitable, and I would rather have my dad be prepared. People would die on both sides. People that I cared about but understood that this wasn’t on me. This was all on Tonka, the man I wished I had never met or fallen in love with—time for a new life.

That is the end for now. Look for the release of Reprisal in early 2024.