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Wednesday, Otober 25th

Dave’s disposition did not improve. The rude awakening of a foreign feeling persisted—to think you know someone your whole life, just to be betrayed and turned on when you need them most. Dave wasn’t sure if he would ever recover from that blow.

But the blows kept coming. It seemed as if Desiree’s actions set off a series of events that bled over into an aftermath much deadlier than the initial accusation itself.

Dave awoke to screaming that morning—sheer-terror, throat-ripping, panic-induced screams.

His sister was unable to catch her breath, causing Georgette to reach for the phone. She was calling for an ambulance. But from the sound of it, there was already one approaching.

“Harmony, breathe,” Dave instructed as he kneeled in front of her, rubbing her wrists—it always calmed her down when she was a child. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“A-a-a-a-gust,” she wheezed, her eyes wide with fear as she clutched at her heart, “H-h-h-ospital.”

The sirens stopped. Dave jumped into action, grabbing his keys and throwing on a jacket over his sweat pants and t-shirt. He hauled Harmony to her feet as Georgette protested.

“She’s fine. She’s coming with me. If something’s happened, she needs to face it,” he whispered under his breath to his wife, “Trust me I know my sister.”

“I’ll just get my jacket,” Georgette insisted as she turned, but Dave grabbed her arm to halt her progress.

“No,” her face fell as he continued, “It will be easier this way, my love, trust me.”

The look he gave her, the desperation in his gaze allowed her to comply, even if it was reluctantly.

“I’ll be here, if you need anything.”

Harmony was whimpering in protest by the time he strapped her into the car. Her face was covered and she was rocking back and forth in a state of complete distress. Dave was briefly reminded of a nature show where he’d seen a snail sneak into survival mode. It crawled far into its shell and played dead—he remembered marveling at such an accomplishment.

Dave was unable to get another word out of his sister other than ‘Doctor H. ’ He knew he should probably contact her therapist, but at the moment it was very possible their father’s life was hanging in precarious balance, and therefore Harmony would have to take a back seat to priority.

They made it to the hospital just minutes after the ambulance. June was waiting in the dimly lit hallway with a nurse. Dave was expecting to see tears, grief—but there was nothing, no emotion in her eyes—only a cool calm façade.

“What’s happened?” Dave panted, out of breath from their sprint across the parking lot.

“My poor August, God protect him,” she murmured, bowing her head in prayer, “My sweet, innocent August.”

Harmony was shaking yet silent beside him—her eyes wide and slightly unfocused. He wished, in that moment, that he could read her mind.

The nurse captured his attention instead, “Your father has suffered a massive heart attack,” the woman informed him, “We are doing everything we can. I was just telling June here, I thought you’d all be more comfortable in the visitor’s room, but she wanted to wait for you.”

Dave nodded in compliance as she navigated them into the waiting room—the sickly yellow of the walls made Dave’s stomach twist. It reminded him of the melting-cheese-covered maggots. He clenched his fists and waited in silence, shoved into a lumpy old chair between the two women in his life who would not let go.

Dave easily forgot time as he sat there in a complete stupor. Lost amongst the chaos in a shipwreck of dissonance. He would not surface from this, he did not want to. It was quiet in the in-between, the eye of the storm, the not knowing. Harmony’s nails were nothing more than chewed down bloody stubs by the time a doctor finally emerged with a grimly rehearsed look on her face.

“I’m sorry.”

Those two words explained it all—his father was dead. He turned to face his mother as the doctor retreated, leaving the three of them alone to process this news. She was livid. Alight with rage. Before Dave could offer any sort of comfort, June was on her feet and glaring down at her children as if they were the cause of her immense pain.

“You,” she began, shaking her fist in their direction, “are wicked. You two are the reason August is gone! He had to pay for your sins! I devoted my entire life to God, to save your unfortunate souls!”

“Mom—“ Dave tried but he was shut down.

“I will have my say!” she screamed, spit flying from her mouth.

Harmony was cocooning herself into the smallest possible ball she could make.

“Maybe you don’t remember, but when you were small, I caught you fondling each other, doing disgusting and shameful things! I thought to blame myself. Maybe I left you alone for too long but the Lord tasked me with a heavy load. No, I see now it was in your souls. And being the good Christian woman I am, I forgave you, you were young, you, David, didn’t know what you were doing. But now I see, as I have suspected for very long time—you are bad seeds. The devil cast his shadow over you and I can see it as clearly now as I should have then.”

Dave stared at his mother in shock, “That’s a ridiculously tall tale, mother. I don’t know why you would tell it.”

“That one,” she hissed, pointing at Harmony, “encouraged you, she was the first one out, the perversion, the one to start it all, wicked girl—rotten to the core,” she turned her mad eyes toward Dave. “I thought you were better. But look at the pain your actions have cost us! Your deviant nature!”

“My actions?”

“That woman you work with! The story has spread over town like wildfire. Everyone in the church knows what you have done and they blame us!”

“I didn’t do anything,” Dave defended. “I didn’t touch her,” he calmly explained.

“Just like you didn’t touch your own flesh and blood? How could I trust you? You’ve lied to Him over and over again. Nothing will save you now—the pair of you. How I ever created such filth, I will never know,”

Her words were more painful than Dave could stand. His sister would never recover from this slaughter.

“You will no longer blacken my doorstep. I will be right with Him. God, I swear to you, I no longer acknowledge either of these beasts as mine. Spare me.”

She fell silent, her head lifted in prayer as if waiting for them to drop on their knees and beg forgiveness—to let her sacrifice them to the church for her own personal gainful pleasure.

The still air was finally broken by the sound of laughter.

It was his sister.

What started as a small chuckle became a raucous hilarity that alarmed him—Harmony laughed until tears were streaming down her face—her shoulders shaking, her chest heaving with humor, she continued to laugh long after June slapped her across the face and stormed from the room. She laughed the whole way home. She laughed herself to sleep in Dave’s arms.

Dave wanted to believe his mother’s reaction was grief, but he knew better.

His sister reemerged around seven that evening. She asked Georgette if she wouldn’t mind giving her a ride across town for an emergency therapy session.

Georgette didn’t hesitate for a second, leaving Dave once again alone with horrific thoughts. He couldn’t imagine the affect his mother’s words must have had on Harmony. And what could he do now? It was unlikely that June would concede, or even more miraculously apologize. He hadn’t even told Georgette the full extent of what happened yet—he knew she was going to be absolutely livid. Would she cut his mother off? Send her back into poverty or worse, out onto the streets? As much as Dave was disgusted with June, she was still his mother. Harmony, however, would not feel the same. He hoped his sister didn’t unload on his wife—it was bound to do more damage than good and Dave had all the damage he could possibly deal with at the moment.