Free Anthology Complex by M.B. Julien Page A

ask her if that was her husband, and she says it was her ex-husband.
She goes on to tell me that she thinks her sister is seeing her ex-husband and
about how much she hates them both. This damn hate gene.
     
    I ask her why she didn't just open the door and talk with them about it,
and she says because Claire would never realize that Silvio was using Claire to
get back at Lynne for taking the kids away from Silvio. She calls Silvio an
Hispanic bastard.
     
    These adults now sound like they are going through typical high school
bullshit. She also adds that she doesn't trust Silvio's temper.
     
    Then Lynne tells me that she knows that Silvio found her last time
because Claire told her where Lynne was staying, and that this was the reason
why she hated and suspected her sister. Lynne's face is so red that I decide I
have to change the subject, and I tell her that her plants are dying. She looks
at me confused, then the redness goes away. She walks into the other room and
then a few seconds later she walks back out and hands me something. A packet of
seeds.
     
    She tells me that she made the mistake of trying to plant zinnias where
there isn't much sunlight. That zinnias can't survive in a shade garden. Since
there was no other place to plant anything she was instead going to plant Peace
Lilies. She tells me that Peace Lilies flourish in the shade. She's finally smiling
again. This happy gene.
     
    Not too long after I hear a knock on my door, and I go see who it is.
I'm hoping it's not the return of Claire and Silvio. I look down the hallway
and I see a police officer and I inform him that I'm the one who lives at that
door.
     
    The officer asks both Lynne and I if we saw or heard anything strange
last night or this morning, and we both say no. Lynne asks why and the officer
tells her that there had been a murder not too far from here. The murder that I
walked past.
     
    The officer tells us that before the man was murdered, several tenants
from other apartment buildings said he knocked on their door and asked strange
questions and looked as if he were confused. As if he didn't know what was
going on and he had no real connection to the world outside of his mind. As if
he were unaware of his actions.
     
    The officer asks if either of us received a visit from a man like that
and we both said no, and then went on to ask others in the building and then he
left.
     
    Two nights ago I had a dream where I was digging a grave. At first I'm
standing in front of my mother and my father's tombstones, and then I'm
standing in the grave digging deeper and deeper not realizing I won't be able
to get out. I'm looking for my mother and father but no matter how deep I dig I
can't find them. It's funny how I say "them" instead of "the
bodies." When a boy is alive and well, you'll call him Jason, but when
he's dead and his body is lifeless, most people refer to him as "the body."
Where's the body? Bring me the body.
     
    Not where's Jason, not bring me Jason. I think most of the times the
people who knew Jason would keep calling him Jason because they don't want to
realize his life is gone and all that's left is his body. The human psyche at
work.
     
    I keep digging and digging but all I can see in my mind is Abraham
Lincoln's face and what I think is his voice. "We can never fool all of
the people all of the time." I look up to see if Lincoln is above me,
speaking down to me, but he isn't there. Just a voice in my head.
     
    When I look back down to start digging again, I see that woman, and she
is laying face down. That damn woman that haunts my dreams. That damn woman who
won't tell me who she is. I start to turn her body, and before me I see a woman
who resembles my mother.
     
    After I wake up I try to figure out what it means but all I can really
come up with is that the dream when I'm in the utopia and this dream mean
something, that they're connected at least in my mind. If the woman laying in
that bed in the utopia that I am leaving