Keep taking the pills: November Short Story

Things are seldom what they seem…..

How true in the case of the  Smith family Tragedy. Nice people by all accounts, and near neighbours, so it was with a frisson of shock that Jill read the article in the local paper. The whole family had been found dead; the police were not looking for anyone in connection with the incident and there was no information as to how the two adults, one seven year old and a young baby had met their fate.

Jill waylaid the postman mid morning and asked him if he knew what had happened.  Haven’t a clue was the less than satisfactory answer but apparently he had delivered a small package there the day the bodies were found.

Picking up her son from school she chatted to some of the mothers there. They didn’t seem to know anything although they all knew the family. Jill, frustrated sat her son down and gave him his tea. Now Darren, did you speak to Ben Smith last week at school. He paused thoughtfully, and taking a mouth full of his beans on toast, shook his head. Darren she said, you must have seen him in school; he was in your class. No, can’t remember.

God, this was proving to be difficult and she imagined all sorts of scenarios in her head as she tackled the ironing. By the time Jack came home she was in full flow. Did the husband slaughter the whole family and kill himself? Could there be a serial killer on the rampage and the Police were trying not the panic the locals. We should be told she announced angrily to her husband. He sighed, took of his glasses, eyed her over the top of the newspaper and asked if she knew the family well?  Now much as he loved her she did tend to be overcurious about the affairs of others. Well frankly she was nosey but he felt it was not in his best interests to articulate this thought. Let it drop, Jill, I’m sure the Police will sort it out, there’s no need to let your imagination run riot.

Jack, I can’t stand mysteries, I demand to know the facts! Yes, he thought wearily and if you don’t, you simply make them up! Abducted by aliens or vaporised by vampires was about to enter into the conversation.

He decided that he needed to work on his latest restoration project and disappeared into his shed.

Getting ready for bed, Jill refused to be distracted and shrugged off his affectionate kisses without thought.  He fell asleep about fifteen minutes into her latest theories and Jill fumed, frustrated and angry, but she couldn’t seem to sleep, like a dog with a bone, she gnawed at the problem until the early hours when she fell into an exhausted sleep.

Next week’s paper was perused from start to finish and Jill was becoming increasingly angry. Not one mention of the unfortunate Smith family. It was blindingly obvious to her, that this was one enormous cover-up and the response from her MP and the conversation with the detective in charge of the case made her literally see red. Her campaign on Facebook seemed to be the only positive aspect of this whole charade which was obviously a massive conspiracy between politicians, the so called guardians of law and order and the State itself. She was in communication with  a number of people who, despite their odd names, were supporting her latest theories, and incidentally did not discount aliens and thought crop circles were a manifestation of Things We do not Understand. She was comforted to be amongst like minded people who had inquiring minds and had the intelligence to realise that the rest of the population were dullards; they just couldn’t see it.

Jack was tolerant about the lack of focus by the woman he had married. Meals were intermittent and hurried; Darren had suddenly developed an aversion to school and wet the bed more often than not.  Jill hadn’t been to the hairdresser and didn’t seem to care what she wore. Clean shirts were a rarity but he was quite capable of doing a full time job and loaded the washing machine each day and stopping off at the shop on the way home from work was now routine. He now took Darren to school and luckily the Head Teacher had managed to contact him to arrange an appointment to discuss his son’s problems one evening last week; kind of her to stay late to accommodate his busy workload.

He had tried to discuss the problems with Jill but it was almost impossible to drag her away from the computer. That evening he had picked Darren up from school, given him tea, tidied the kitchen, loaded the washing machine and cooked a meal.  Of course he reflected, it would all be easier to fit in at the end of the month.

Looking at Jill from the other side of the table he was appalled.  It was obvious that despite her moving in to the spare room with her PC, she didn’t look good.  Her hair was greasy and she hadn’t been to the hairdresser for ages. She was looking dishevelled and he was quite convinced she hadn’t bothered to shower for some time. Despite this, she looked strangely happy.  It’s terrorists she said, and ignoring the food, gulped down another glass of wine.

Right, he said, but was feverishly working out how to explain this all to her. He’d lost his job, but he was damned if he find a way to explain this to Jill. Too much time off they had told him and he hadn’t protested.  She went upstairs and he could hear the furious clatter of the keyboard. If Jill would only take the tablets, they could discuss this, they had done so in the past.

Before he turned in for the night, he went to her room, kissed the top of her head then pulled the plug out of the socket. The PC died; it was the last resort. He left her tablets next to it with a note. Please come back, we need you. Love Jack and Darren.

It was too late for the poor Smiths. They had received the spare part for their gas boiler that dreadful morning but he had arrived too late to fit it. He’d called in sick because he had to pick up Jill from the clinic. They’d agreed to discharge her if she promised to take her medication. She always promised, but….