IslandAffair

pair of small
white sneakers and looked up at the petite figure of Linda Shaw. She was
dressed in a fitted white T-shirt and pink shorts, blonde hair tied back in a perky
ponytail, looking every inch the pretty single mom. The image just didn’t
compute with the situation he now found himself in.
    “Linda? What the hell?”
    He didn’t know her well, except that she had recently gone
through a bitter divorce. Her husband Kyle moved to the next town and took
Shelly, their daughter, every second weekend. Linda and Kyle were high school
sweethearts who had gotten married straight after school. Shelly came along
soon after and the town had been split on whether they’d married out of love or
necessity. It hadn’t mattered either way to Rob, they had never been in his
circle of friends. He gaped up at her stupidly, completely astonished.
    “Robin. Just so you know, Shelly won’t be attending lessons
again,” she said with a smile as she walked around him. He slowly rolled to his
back and sat up. Keeping her in his line of vision, like she was a viper risen
out of the grass, poised to strike. “I just don’t feel that you are the correct
influence on her.” She continued in that same reasonable tone, “The last thing
she needs in her life is another queer !” She slapped her hand against
the shower stall door, slamming it back against the wall. John sat against the
back, hands cuffed to the pipe above his head. There was duct tape over his
mouth and dried blood on his head.
    “Do you know why Kyle left me?” Robin shook his head but she
continued on without waiting for his reply. “He left me because he woke up one
morning and decided he wanted to fuck men. Who knows what diseases he brought
into our marriage?” She sneered. “Six months later I meet another nice guy.
He’s sweet and cute, and so nice to me. Loves kids.” Belatedly Rob realized she
was talking about him. “So I stay late after my daughter’s swimming class to
ask him out and what do I find? Another fucking FAG!” She kicked John’s leg and
he grunted.
    Robin gasped and tried to draw her attention back to him.
“What do you want, Linda?”
    “What I want is for all the damn gays in this country
to learn their place!” She paced as she ranted, pointing at him, voice gaining
volume with her passion. “You’re an abomination! I don’t want to see it or hear
about it. You should all be sent to those camps.” She leaned down, getting into
his face. Spittle flew from her lips. “They should lock you all up !”
    She straightened, face composed again, arms spread wide. “I
mean, how could you turn down this?”
    How indeed? Robin didn’t know what was scarier, the
screaming maniac or this relaxed, calm person who was so familiar. He’d like to
say that he saw madness in her eyes but she looked just as sane as she always
had. It was clear, though, that Linda Shaw had left sanity far behind.
    “It’s your own fault, you know. I’d have been happy if you
just left. I did my best to make you leave. But still you’re prancing
around town holding hands and I hear people talking. They think it’s nice. That
you aren’t doing any harm. That maybe we should be more tolerant. Next thing we
know there will be more of you people coming out of the woodwork. I won’t have my daughter raised in that kind of environment.”
    “So you are just going to kill us?” he gasped
incredulously. “Linda, please, don’t do this. Think about Shelly.”
    She whirled on him, putting the full weight of her body
behind the backhanded blow. Rob’s lip split with the force of it. John growled
and struggled against his bonds.
    “SHUT UP! Don’t you even say her name! This town needs a
strong example and since you couldn’t take the hint, you’re it.”
    She drew a small black gun from under the back of her
T-shirt and pointed it at him. “Stand up and turn ‘round.”
    Robin did as she asked, struggling awkwardly to his feet. He
had beaten the odds once against a bullet, he had no desire to try his luck a
second time. If he let himself, he could still remember the burning agony that
had spread through him when the numbness had worn off. She stepped behind him.
The light, floral scent of her perfume drifted around him as she unfastened the
handcuff from one hand. He thought about it. Even with the memory of that pain
fresh in his mind he could see himself turning, grabbing for the gun. He raised
his eyes to John’s and knew that he saw it too.