AN EVENING WITH COUSINS

by

BRADLEY W. SIMPSON
    

“Why do you think you can threaten me and get away with it, Charles?” 

Victor said to his cousin.  “Do I seem like the kind of guy who intimidates easily?”

     Charles said nothing, but glared off into space.

     “You’ve threatened me with this before, if you recall,” Victor said, pacing back and forth with a glass of beer in his hand.  “It didn’t work then, and it’s not going to work now.”

     Victor took a seat across from his cousin and stared at him hard for a minute.  Then he was on his feet once again, pacing the room. 

     “I have to say I’m disappointed in you, Charles.  What kind of man threatens to tell his own cousin’s wife that he’s sleeping around on her?  Did you think blackmailing me would really work?

     Charles remained silent.

     “Aren’t you going to drink the beer I poured you?”  he said, noticing the untouched glass sitting beside Charles.  “Oh, that’s right.  You don’t like beer do you?”

     Victor walked over to the large bay window overlooking the orchard.  The moon was full that night and he could see clearly across the courtyard and the orchard beyond.

     “You see all this, Charles?  This is sweat and blood.  Years of hard work.  And I’m not about to let you steal it all away with some ridiculous threat.  Like I told you before: stay away from Jessica!”

     Charles remained seated, and offered no sign that he was even listening to Victor.

     “I suggest you take me seriously, Charlie boy.  I think you know what I’m capable of.”

     Victor crossed to the bar and poured himself another glass of beer.  “If you’re not going to drink, then I’ll drink for both of us.  How much were you trying to blackmail me for again?  $100,000?”

     Charles still said nothing and his silence angered Victor. 

     “Well, you can forget it!  You’ll not get one penny from me.  How dare you come into my house and threaten to tell my wife these things that could absolutely ruin me!”

     Charles sat motionless, uninterested in whatever it was his cousin was raving about.

     “You were always good at the silent treatment, weren’t you, cousin?  Even when we were kids working on the farm, you would clam up and not say a word for hours when you got mad.  You haven’t grown up a bit.”

     Victor slammed down his empty glass and in an act of defiance snatched his cousin’s glass from the table beside him and drained it with a long gulp.

     “Ha!  No point in letting a perfectly good beer go to waste, now is there?  What would you like dear cousin?  Bourbon?  Red wine?  My entire fortune?”

     A train went by somewhere in the distance and the sound of its whistle could be heard blowing in the cold autumn night.

     “Hear that, Charles?  That reminds me of Jessica.  She took a train up to Maine for a couple weeks to visit her mother.  I miss her already.  I can’t believe you would really tell her about the other women in my life.  It’s none of your damn business, Charles!”

     Still no reply from Charles.  His eyes seemed almost glazed over with boredom.

     Just then the clock in the hall chimed the midnight hour.  Victor was about to pour himself another drink but hesitated.

     “It’s late, cousin.  If you’re not going to talk then I’m going to bed.  I suggest you forget this foolish notion of blackmailing me, once and for all.  It’s time for you to go to bed.”

     So saying, Victor bent down and collected his cousin’s severed head from the chair.  “I know, I know.  You hate sleeping in the freezer.  But don’t worry, it’s only till Jessica gets back in a few days.  Then you can join the rest of your body in the furnace.