Six Different Deaths (Number three: Concussion)

[Gita]

 

He named the squalling baby Jedediah, left the room where his third wife had labored, and spent the night roughly impregnating his fifth wife, whose body was fresh and cunny was still tight.

If a woman didn’t keep herself up to his standards, he would strike her face hard enough to break a cheekbone. If she let herself go a second time – even in childbirth he insisted on upswept hair and sweet breath – he would break her nose, as well. 

After that, he would not lie with her, nor would he release her to another man as wife, thereby sentencing her to a life of menial celibacy in his house. A shunned wife with a caved-in face soon understood how cruel her sister-wives could be.

When Jedediah turned fourteen and had some height and meat on him, he raised a crowbar and avenged his crooked-nosed mother with three blows to the old man’s head, then dragged his father’s body to the shallow grave his mother and two aunts had dug, prayerfully, the night before.

 

[Joey Delgado]

Nice revenge tale. Love it when horrible men get their comeuppance. Love these stories, Gita. Best part, his aunts and mom digging up the grave for that son of a bitch's body. :)

[Mark L. Torrey]

Nice, just reward ... another great work !!

[Angela]

Prayerfully. Yep.  Perfect.

[Mike Handley]

Count me in with the writerly types who were bowled over by "prayerfully." A masterful touch. And this is the first time I've EVER heard the word "cunny."

[Stephen Torelli]

A prayerful tale, Gita. Guys like that in the old neighborhood disappeared and no questions asked. 

[bolton carley]

these are the kind of things that make me sick to my stomach because i'm sure they happen.  and i hope someone like you gets to defend them in court if they have to get caught.  well done.

[Gita]

Whew.  It's hard to make someone  hateful and give them their just desserts in six sentences.

@Paul: the face I see is Harry Dean Stanton's because he played the prophet /polygamist on Big Love.

[Paul de Denus]

Why do I see Warren Jeffs face here? nut-bars- nicely told Gita

[Jamie Hogan]

Gotta echo Bill, "prayerfully" in the last sentence is the kind of thing a writer's writer does. THAT word, in THAT sentence, at THAT time. As for the rest of it, it gives me that warm feeling of satisfaction you only get from justice being done.

[Other]

So many versions of this in the daily degradation of trapped, truly enslaved human lives.   No exits, usually.  Here, even killing the beast is unlikely to repair their lives.  The body will be found.  Maybe the boy can cut a deal for manslaughter, serve 10 years.  This is hell in life, no matter what.  Well told.