(no subject)

43.
“The Brotherhood”

Pappy tried to ease Tooley into a chair, but the man wanted nothing to do with anything within the house.

The pair moved out and a few steps into the wooded area and then the Sheriff found a tree to lean against and then slid down to the ground.

After a moment he spoke.

“The initials, and Wiley. It all came back to me. The one summer I was able to go to camp,” His eyes shot up to Pappy, as though trying to explain something he didn’t really comprehend, “The rest of the time I had to work during the summer. This year Aunt Esther had given the money to me for my birthday and I got to go.

“But most of the camp thing was great. Baseball and crafts everyday. Camping in the cabins at night. There was a whole lot of politics, but I didn’t really get involved. It was mostly the rich kids vs. us. The way the rest of the world was, so I didn’t pay much attention.

“Some of this I have forgotten, or made myself forget, until I was in that house.

“Once a couple of boys, don’t remember who, asked if I wanted to join a really big deal club. I said sure and they said, ‘Talk to Wiley.’

“When I spoke to him he told me it was called ‘The Brotherhood of the Unspeakable.’ Or the ‘B.O.U.’ and I was never to speak of this again. But if I wanted to join then I should meet him and the other members at midnight that night at the pond.

“I didn’t think much about it, and that night I just fell asleep way before midnight.

“When I saw Wiley the next day I realized that I had missed it and apologized, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll have another meeting soon.’

“Just an hour or so after that we got news that they found a boy dead and everybody was going to go home. I went to say good bye to Wiley and was standing in his cabin waiting for him when I smelled something. Something on his bunk was making me woozy, so I left and thought I’d come back when I felt better. But I never did get back.”

Tooley looked up, with a guilty look in his eyes, “I know what that smell was. I didn’t know then, but I know now. It was chloroform. It was on a rag on Wiley’s bed.”

Tooley looked like he might cry.

“If I had told someone, they might have stopped him. If I had put it all together I could have save those boys having to die.”

He stood and Pappy held him and patted him on the back as that big strong man sobbed uncontrollably.

“Hang on, son,” He told him, “You were a kid. You were lucky to have gotten away alive yourself.’

Pappy had had to stop himself from saying “Be glad they didn’t get you too.”

They.

The Brotherhood.

 

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens

(no subject)

44.
“A Lady Named Marilyn”

While they trekked across the wasteland known as Atlantis on their way back to town, Pappy did his best to mine any tiny sliver of memory that might add to the slowly growing picture of “The Brotherhood of the Unspeakable.”

“Anything you can remember would be helpful, Tooley, you know that. When you first heard of them, any members of the group, anything at all,” Pappy told him.

“I would be glad to help, you know that,” Tooley assured his mentor, “But it was a long time ago, and there were lots of things just being a kid that age would stir up.”

“I don’t doubt ya’ son,” The old man said, “It’s just that sometimes the biggest clue is just on the tip of your tongue, just resting on your lips and waiting to come out . . .”

“Wait,” Tooley tossed down weeds he was holding as they walked, “Lips, that did remind me of something.” Pappy caught up with him and the younger man summoned his memories.

“I can remember that a bunch of us were talking in the hall at school. We were saying that we were sorry about Rory, and that nobody was going to get a chance to see Marilyn again, either.”

“Who was . . . ?” Pappy began.

“She wasn’t a who, she was an it. But not to us pre-teen boys full of hormones raging.”

Pappy shook his head in confusion.

“Marilyn was a mannequin head that Rory brought with him to the camp. For a quarter guys could practice kissing her.”

Pappy smiled knowingly.

“After Rory was killed we were sure his father would find Marilyn and destroy her. That made us even sadder.”

“We had a friend, when I was a boy,” Pappy admitted, “With a life-sized picture of Myrna Loy, who served about the same purpose. But I’m sure Marilyn was a step up.”

“I think I remember her so well because of the irony of her being brought to us by the Minister’s son. You know what they say about the preacher’s boy,” Tooley laughed.

“Now, back to the story of the Brotherhood,” Pappy nudged.

“That same conversation, the one about Marilyn, was the first time somebody mentioned the Brotherhood. It was some weird new club, but no body knew anything about it. But, that was the first time any of us had talked about it, and the first time I ever heard of the Brotherhood.”

“And,” Pappy surmised, “It was after Rory Elkin’s death. The group came into being around the same time as the boy’s killing.”

This was looking more and more like the Brotherhood was at the center of all of this, and that meant one thing for sure.

No man is an island is certain, but so is the statement “No man is a
brotherhood.”

Which meant there were still brothers out there.

 

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens

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