Moth-Eaten Furs and Tarnished Jewels
~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp ~

(This short story has been published in The Literary Hatchet.)

Blanche arrived on the ten-fifteen train. Stella was there to meet her. They greeted effusively. Blanche wept, held Stella tightly and covered her face with kisses.

“It’s just so wonderful seeing you!” Blanche said. “I can scarcely believe I’m finally here.”

“Was it a difficult trip?” Stella asked.

“Well, you know, the train always rattles my nerves and then there’s all this heat.

“Yes, New Orleans is hot,” Stella said.

“Right now there’s nothing I’d like better than to get into a tub of cool water and soak for hours!”

They stopped off for a drink, just a little nightcap as Blanche said, and seated themselves in a back booth at a little bar where they might talk.

“You’re looking wonderfully well,” Blanche said. “Married life seems to agree with you.”

“I wish I could say the same for you,” Stella said. “You look awfully pale and tired.”

“Oh, don’t look at me!” Blanche said, holding her hands up between her face and the light. “Daylight never exposed so total a ruin!”

“Is anything the matter? You’re not ill, are you?”

“No, not ill, exactly. No more than you might expect.”

“I heard all the talk about the vampires around the home place. I hoped you were all right.”

“Yes, I was fine. As well as might be expected, as the doctors say. But I’m afraid I have some very bad news.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about the home place.”

“Well, tell me. What is it?”

Blanche’s face clouded; she took Stella’s hand across the table in her own. “We’ve lost the home place.”

“What? Lost it how?”

“Everything had to be sold to pay off the debts. I’m afraid there’s nothing left.”

“Why didn’t you tell me things were so bad?”

“I didn’t to worry you, dear, and, besides, I knew there was absolutely nothing you could do, living here in the metropolis with your husband.”

“I could have come down for a few days and helped you sort everything out.”

“I managed all on my own.”

“Imagine that! The home place gone!”

“Yes, it took exactly a hundred and fifty years for our once-prosperous family to squander a considerable fortune and come to nothing. My greatest regret is there’s nothing left to pass on to you.”

“Oh, Blanche! I feel so bad about all this!”

“So do I, dear, but what’s done is done! The only thing to do now is to move forward. Life goes on, you know!”

“You’ve lost your home and everything! What on earth are you going to down now?”

“You needn’t worry, darling sister! I’m not planning on casting a pall on your happy home forever.”

“I know. That isn’t what I meant.”

“Just let me rest up for a few days in your comforting presence and I shall be right again in no time.”

“Of course, darling! For just as long as you need! Stanley travels a lot in his work and it’ll just be the two of us again, the way it was when we were young.”

“Sounds like heaven!”

In Stella and Stanley’s modest rooms on the ground floor of an old stucco apartment building, Stella installed Blanche in a tiny back room where there was a small bed, a bureau, a ramshackle chair and a closet that wouldn’t even begin to hold all her clothes. There was no door to the room so Stella hung a thick curtain that Blanche could pull closed whenever she felt the need of privacy.

For two days she stayed mostly in the little darkened room (“where the light doesn’t hurt my eyes”), lounging on the bed and listening to her tinny old phonograph records. Stella offered to fix her special dishes that would tempt her appetite, but she refused them. She was just getting over an illness, she said, and had no appetite.

On the third evening, Blanche came out of her room and, after spending a couple of hours in the bathroom soaking in the tub—hydrotherapy, she called it—she dressed to go out.

“Why, where are you going, dear?” Stella asked.

“I thought I would like to see what the world looks like outside these four walls,” Blanche said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t mind! Would you like me to come with you?”

“Oh, no, my dear! I’ll be fine!”

“But you don’t know the city. You might get lost.”

“I have an uncanny ability to find my way around in the strangest of places. Don’t worry about me.”

Stella waited up until two in the morning for Blanche to return and finally went to bed.

The next day Blanche slept all day. When she awoke in the early evening, Stella offered her coffee and various things to eat, but she would take nothing. She flitted about the apartment in her Japanese silk kimono, endlessly smoking cigarettes and looking nervously out the window, as though waiting for something or someone.

“Are you feeling rested now, dear?” Stella asked.

“Yes, I feel ever so much refreshed now. Thank you for asking.”

“Did you enjoy your evening out?”

“Oh, yes! I had a marvelous time!”

“What would you like to do this evening? We could go to a movie or play some gin rummy. If you’re still feeling tired, I could read to you while you rest.”

“I’m sorry, sweet. I’m meeting someone in just about an hour or so. That doesn’t give me much time.”

“Meeting who?”

“You don’t know them, dear.”

“Them?”

“Yes, I met up with some friends last night in my rambles about town.”

“I thought you didn’t know anybody in the city.”

“Well, it’s just the funniest thing! I didn’t know they were in the city, but they somehow knew I was here.”

“What did you do last night?”

“Oh, we talked and danced and laughed a lot. How we laughed! Just the way we did when we were young!”

“What did you find that was so funny?”

“We were just talking over old times. You know how it is when you meet people you knew from a long time ago.”

“Were they people from the home place?”

“Oh, no. I knew them after that.”

“What time are you planning on coming back? Should I wait up for you?”

“Oh, no! You go to bed and get your beauty sleep and, above all, don’t worry about me!”

The next day Stella was going to suggest a shopping trip, but Blanche slept all day again.

After five days of what Stella considered uncharacteristic behavior, she took Blanche by her cold hands and made her sit down at the kitchen table.

“I think it’s time we had a talk,” she said.

“Is something the matter, dear?” Blanche asked.

“Something’s the matter with you and I want to know what it is.”

“Why, there’s nothing the matter with me, dearest!”

“I don’t know you anymore. The Blanche I knew would never stay out all night and sleep all day.”

Blanche lit a cigarette. Her hands shook and her eyes looked glassy. “It’s true I’m not the person I once was,” she said.

“You’ve been through a difficult time, I know.”

“Yes, and it’s changed me greatly.”

“You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

“I planned on telling you when the time was right.”

“Now is that time.”

“Besides losing the home place, I also lost my job at the high school. They called me into a meeting of the school board and they fired me.”

“Oh, no, Blanche! Why did they fire you?”

“I became involved with one of my students. Romantically involved.”

“A high school boy?”

“More of a man, really.”

“Oh, Blanche! How could you!”

“I was desperately lonely.”

“How humiliating it must have been for you!”

“Words don’t begin to describe it! They said I was lewd and lascivious and a lot of other words that are too embarrassing to relate.”

“Oh, how awful!”

“They threatened to have me arrested. The only reason they didn’t was because I promised to leave town, never to return.”

“So that’s why you came here?”

“Not at first. I didn’t want to prevail upon you until things became really desperate for me. I was staying in an old railroad hotel about twenty miles from the home place, trying to figure out what my next move would be. I was as low as I had ever been in my life. I had about eighteen dollars to my name and some moth-eaten old furs and tarnished jewels. And then I met a man.”

“Oh, Blanche! Not another man!”

“I was drinking in the bar one night, alone, when he came in. He was not like any man I had ever seen before. He was young but not young, if you know what I mean. It’s impossible to describe.” She puffed on her cigarette and blew out a stream of smoke.

“Go on,” Stella said.

“I had heard stories about the vampires, of course, same as everybody else, but I didn’t know what they could be like.”

“So, you’re saying this man was a vampire?”

“His name was Alessandro.”

“Foreign?”

“Aren’t we all? I spent the next few days with him, doing the wildest and most unimaginable things. It’s all a blur now, thankfully, which I can barely recall. But the fact is that he lifted me out of my despair and made me want to live again.”

“Don’t tell me you let this fellow turn you into a vampire!”

“It was the only way I could survive all the blows that life had dealt me!”

“Oh, Blanche! You’re a vampire now?”

“Yes, dear, I’m afraid that’s the truth of it.”

“So that explains the odd behavior.”

“Yes, that explains it.”

“I don’t think you should be here, Blanche! There are people in New Orleans who kill vampires just became they are vampires!”

“I’m aware of that fact, and the last thing in the world I want to do is to endanger you or your husband or your home. I came here out of necessity, as you are my only living relative in the world.”

“When you go out at night, have you been killing people and drinking their blood?”

“Oh, no! Somebody else does the killing.”

“The friends you mentioned.”

“Yes.”

“And what happened to Alessandro, the man who made you a vampire?”

“He had to go away and leave me. He told me from the very beginning that it had to be so.”

“Where did he go?”

“He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Is he dead?”

“We’re all dead, dear. Even you. Even Stanley.”

“Since you speak Stanley’s name, I have to tell you that he’ll be back from his business trip tomorrow. He won’t be happy to hear there’s a vampire living in his house. He’s very traditional.”

“He doesn’t have to know I’m a vampire, does he?”

“How can he not know, with you gone all night and sleeping all day and never coming to the table and eating?”

“If there’s anything in the world I know, darling, it’s men. I can keep your precious Stanley from knowing about me.”

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Blanche, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave before Stanley comes back! I have about seventy dollars in the house and you’re welcome to every cent of it.”

“That’s kind of you, precious, but I don’t think seventy dollars would get me very far. If you’ll just leave Stanley to me, I’m sure I’ll have him eating out of my hand in no time.”

“I’m afraid you don’t know Stanley.”

“Only trust me, dearest! That’s all I ask.”

Stella prepared a special dinner for Stanley’s homecoming. Blanche took a long bath and put on one of her most alluring dresses. She spent a lot of time at the dressing table fixing her hair and getting her makeup just right. She didn’t want to scare Stanley out his wits the very first time she met him.

Blanche had a picture in her mind of what Stanley would look like and she wasn’t far off. He was rather on the short side, muscular, attractive in a crude way. Earthy was the word she might use to describe him. She had known his type before. One wouldn’t be able to discuss books and music with him, but the important thing was to strike the right tone. Let him know you’re on his side and he’ll be on yours.

After the initial pleasantries were dispensed with, they sat down at the  table for dinner.

“How do you like our little home?” Stanley asked Blanche.

“It’s very cozy,” she said, “but different from what I’m used to.”

“That’s right. You’re used to luxury and a big fancy house with lots of rooms and lots of servants to do all the things you don’t want to do yourself.”

“That wasn’t quite what I meant.”

“Well, we don’t have any servants. I work my ass into the ground to make a living for my wife and myself and my wife does all the work around the house, all the cooking and cleaning and anything else that needs to be done.”

“My goodness, Stanley!” Blanche said. “You don’t need to sound so defensive! I admire you, believe me I do! We all have our own struggles, no matter what station we’re born to in life. I would never look down on you!”

“And while we’re on the subject,” Stanley said. “I’d like to ask you a few questions about that big fancy house of yours with its many rooms and its many servants. How much of that whole layout is my wife entitled to as her share?”

“Stanley,” Stella said, “we don’t have to talk about that now. Blanche is here for a visit and we want to make everything as pleasant for her as we can.”

“Oh, so that’s the way it is, is it? I’m not supposed to mention anything to poor Blanche about what should rightfully belong to me and mine?”

“Of course, you can mention it, if you want to,” Blanche said weakly.

“In the state of Louisiana, we have what is known as the Napoleonic Code. It states that anything belonging to the wife also belongs to the husband, and vice versa.”

“I believe I’ve heard of that,” Blanche said.

“You’re being boorish, Stanley,” Stella said.

“I’m being what? What did you just say to me?”

“It’s just that Blanche has been terribly upset with things that have been going on in her life recently.”

“What things?”

“You might as well tell him, Stella,” Blanche said. “He has to know some time.”

“Tell me what?”

“The home place is lost,” Stella said. “There’s nothing left.”

“Lost? How?”

“Everything was sold to satisfy old debts,” Blanche said. “Every stick of furniture. All the family heirlooms. All of mother’s silver and antique china. Everything. There’s nothing left of the house, the grounds, or the family fortune.”

He slammed his fist down on the table. “Is this the crap you’ve been feeding my wife?”

“It’s all true. I have papers in my trunk of the various transactions. I can show them to you after dinner if you’d like to see them. If it would prove anything.”

“You may fool her, but you will not fool me! I know what you people are like. You think we’re stupid because we work for a living.”

“Oh, Stanley!” Stella said. “That’s carrying things too far! Blanche has always made her own living ever since college.”

“How is it that she went to college and you didn’t?”

“That’s getting off the subject. Could we please talk about something a little more pleasant? How was your trip?”

“It was bad, that’s how it was! When a man comes home, he wants to be able to relax in his own home and not have a couple of magpies saying things in his face that don’t make any sense.”

“I’d be happy to explain anything that isn’t clear,” Blanche said.

He noticed then that Blanche wasn’t eating but was only holding a half-filled glass of wine in her hand.

“What’s the matter with her?” he asked Stella. “Isn’t our food good enough for her?”

“She has an unsettled stomach, that’s all. She thought it best if she doesn’t eat anything just yet.”

“Our food isn’t fancy enough for her,” he said.

“Now, Stanley, dear,” Blanche said flirtatiously. “There is a reason why I’m not eating, but it isn’t what you think.”

“What is the reason, then?”

“Shall I tell him, Stella?”

“I don’t think now is a good time.”

“Tell me what?”

“Well, the truth is, Stanley, I have become a vampire.”

“You have become a what?”

“I don’t eat what you eat because I’m a vampire.”

“I don’t think it’s right to just blurt it out that way,” Stella said helplessly.

“Oh, so you’re a vampire?” he said. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“Please, let’s not have a row,” Stella said.

“I thought it only fair to tell you since I’m living in your home.”

“Well, not for long, you’re not!”

“Stanley, we can’t just put her out on the street!” Stella said.

“There are people in this town who consider vampires the lowest form of animal life,” he said, “and I tend to agree.”

“You have to remember she’s family!” Stella said.

“Well, she’s not my family. I can grab her by the throat and throw her out the same as if she was a bag of garbage!”

“Well, that isn’t very nice!” Blanche said. “I was trying to be honest with you and put all my cards on the table.”

“Here are the cards that are on the table, Blanche!” he said. “You have about five minutes to get out of my house!”

“Stanley, you’re not throwing her out!” Stella said.

He clenched his jaw and pointed his finger. “Are you a vampire, too?” he asked.

“Of course not!”

“It’s all right, Stella,” Blanche said calmly. “I’ll go. But I could use that seventy dollars, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, darling. You can have anything that’s mine.”

Stella pushed herself back from the table and went into the bedroom to get the money. When she returned, Blanche and Stanley were standing beside the table, grappling. Stanley had his hand around Blanche’s diamond necklace and was trying to pull it off. Blanche was holding him off the best she could but was no match for his muscular strength. When she tried to claw his face, he stayed just out of her reach.

Finally the necklace came free and Stanley let go of her. When she fell against the table, her hand found its way to a large serrated knife used for cutting meat. As he was holding the diamond necklace up to the light to get a better look, she sliced across his throat, severing the jugular.

He put his hands up to his neck and the blood poured from between his fingers. He teetered, trying to maintain his balance, and fell heavily to the floor.

“Stanley!” Stella screamed.

“I’m so sorry,” Blanche said, “but I was only defending myself.”

Stella knelt beside Stanley on the blood-soaked rug. “We’ve got to get him some help! Get an ambulance!”

“I’m afraid it’s no use,” Blanche said. “He’s already lost enough blood that he’ll never recover. Just a few more breaths and it’ll all be over.”

“You killed Stanley!” Stella said. “You deliberately killed Stanley!”

“What’s done is done,” Blanche said. “The important thing now is to keep our heads and decide on the best course of action.”

“I’m going to call the police!”

“No, you can’t do that! I’m all you have now. We must stick together on this. We’ve got to make this look like a vampire attack, or you’ll be implicated in poor Stanley’s death.”

“No, I’m going tell the truth! I’m not going to lie about a thing like this.”

“Now listen to me! You go pack a bag and I’ll do what needs to be done here.”

“What are you saying?”

“We can’t help Stanley now. We must think of ourselves.”

Stella went into the bedroom mechanically and began talking things out of the closet and out of drawers and putting them into a suitcase on the bed, making little moaning sounds.

On her knees beside Stanley’s body, Blanche moved his hands away from his throat and she began lapping up his blood, finding it the best and most delicious-tasting she had yet encountered. It was life-giving. It was the sun, the moon and the stars.

She bit into his neck, not to release more blood, but to make it look as if he had been killed by a vampire. When she had drunk her fill, she felt fortified, better than she had ever felt before in her life.

Taking one last look at his face, she pulled the tablecloth off the table and the coverlet off the couch and covered him up so that Stella wouldn’t have to see him in his depleted state.

Stella came out of the bedroom carrying her suitcase. When she saw Blanche covered with Stanley’s blood, she shrank and covered her face with her hands. “How could such an awful thing happen?” she asked.

“Just give me a few minutes to clean myself up,” Blanche said, “and we’ll leave this house or horror.”

“We can’t just leave him here like this!”

“We’ll leave the front door unlocked. The neighbors will suspect something wrong and will find him soon enough.”

“And what will they think when they find I’m gone?”

“They’ll look for you for a while and when they don’t find you, they’ll think the vampires have carried you off.”

“Vampires! Ugh! I wish I had never heard that word!”

Blanche went into her room and cleaned herself up and changed her clothes while Stella sat on the couch and sobbed and shuddered. In fifteen minutes they were ready to go.

They took a cab to the train station. When they were seated on the crowded train headed north, Stella sat and stared at the seat back in front of her. All the tears seemed to have been wrenched out of her.

Blanche took her hand and said, “I will never stop regretting what happened, and I will spend the rest of your life making it up to you.”

“In a couple of weeks we would have celebrated our first wedding anniversary.”

“I know you’ve had a terrible shock, dear, but soon you will begin to see that what happened is for the best. Stanley would never have made you happy because he just wasn’t the right kind of man for you. After a couple of years, he would have made you miserable and you would have had no other choice but to get away from him.”

Stella pulled her hand away. “How can you say such terrible things about Stanley with him lying on the floor of our dining room with all of his blood drained away.”

“I know, dear. Try not to think about it.”

“And on top of everything else I’m going to have a baby. Stanley’s baby. I just found it out. I hadn’t even told him yet.”

“Oh, darling! Is it true?”

“Yes, it’s true, and I hate it for Stanley’s sake. He wanted a baby, but we weren’t sure if we were ready yet or not.”

“Oh, Stella. That is wonderful news! I’m so happy for you!”

“Well, I’m just not feeling very happy right now.”

“Oh, I hope it’s a boy! We’ll raise him together, just the two of us and we’ll spoil him within an inch of his little life.”

“And what do I say when people ask me where my husband is?”

“You just tell them he died before his time and you’re a young widow.”

“I don’t know, Blanche. I think I’ll just rather jump in front of this train and let it smash me flat.”

“Oh, Stella, don’t talk that way! Everything is going to work out fine. We have such good times ahead of us. You’ll see.”

“I won’t be expected to become a vampire, will I?” Stella asked.

“Of course not, dear, but we don’t have to talk about it now.”

“And the baby?”

“Nobody will ever harm a hair on his head. I promise.”

“There’s a lot about vampires I just don’t know.” Stella said. “I never expected to have one in my family”

“I know, dear. Just don’t think about it now.”

Blanche cradled Stella’s head against her shoulder and with the gentle rocking of the train, Stella soon went to sleep, utterly exhausted from all that had occurred.

Blanche smiled her secret smile and felt benevolent toward all the other passengers on the train. Things had worked out so well. Stella would get over Stanley soon enough. She was still young and pretty, or she would be with a little fashion advice and the right kind of makeup and hairstyle. Men would be drawn to her. Young, handsome, virile men with intellect and refinement. Men with hot, rich blood, even more delicious than Stanley’s. What a time they were going to have!

Copyright © 2023 by Allen Kopp

Schizophrenia
~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp ~

The hallway was a gray tunnel with a black-and-white tiled floor. The boy kept his eyes on the window at the end to keep from having to look into any of the rooms as he passed them. When he and his father came to the last room on the left, his father pushed open the partly closed door and they went inside.

He hardly recognized his mother. Her hair was dirty-looking and flat, without the curl that he was used to seeing. She sat in a chair beside the bed, her face very pale.

“Say hello to your mother,” his father said.

The boy took two steps forward. His mother moved her eyes away from a spot on the wall and looked at his face and then looked away again as if she wasn’t interested.

“Shock treatments,” his father said. “It takes a while for them to wear off.”

“Hello, mother,” the boy said. “We came to see you.”

He touched her lightly on the wrist, believing that his touch might wake her up, but she didn’t respond.

“I don’t think she knows me,” the boy said. “What should I do?”

“Don’t do anything,” his father said. “She’ll remember later that you were here.”

“Why does she have to have shock treatments?”

“Schizophrenia.”

“I don’t like this place.”

“I don’t like it, either, but it’s where she needs to be right now.”

The boy sat in one of the straight-backed chairs against the wall. “Will I have schizophrenia, too, because she does?” he asked.

“I don’t see it in you the way I always saw it in her,” his father said, “but we’ll see. The first sign I see that you’re that way, I’ll have you committed.”

“When will they let her come home?”

“Maybe not for a long time yet. We’ll have to get along without her the best we can, at least for the time being.”

“Don’t you think she’d get well quicker at home?”

“How would we be able to take care of her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the doctor could stop by every now and then and see how she’s getting along.”

“Doctors don’t do that.”

“I think she’d be all right,” the boy said, “if she just didn’t have to sit by herself in this dark room.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” his father said, sitting down and taking a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it.

“If she would just say something to me to let me know she knows who I am,” the boy said.

“Why is that so important?”

“I don’t know. It feels funny to have your mother stare off into space and not know who you are.”

“I think it’s good for you to see her this way.”

“Why?”

“You need to know what things are really like. Then when she comes home and seems normal, you’ll have the picture in your mind of what she was like when she wasn’t normal, and you’ll know what to expect when it happens again.”

“Maybe it won’t happen again.”

“Maybe not, but it’s something you’ll always be thinking about.”

“I just want her to be the way she was before she got the way she is now,” the boy said.

Outside, a lawn mower roared past the window. She turned toward the sound and pushed herself up out of the chair. The boy and his father watched her closely as she shuffled the few steps to the window in her old-lady slippers.

“She can walk!” the boy said.

“Of course she can walk,” his father said. “Schizophrenia doesn’t affect the legs.”

The boy went and stood beside her, to help her if need be. She watched the man outside pushing the lawn mower, first one way and then the other. When he was finished with that section of grass and went farther away where she could no longer see him, she turned toward the boy.

“I know that boy,” she said. “I used to go to school with him.”

The boy smiled at her and helped her back to the chair, happy that she had shown some signs of life.

“Do you want me to go get you a Coke?” he asked when she was sitting down again.

She shook her head and the boy was further encouraged.

“I think she does know who I am!” he said.

Soon visiting hours were over and the boy and his father had to leave. As they walked past the nurses’ station, two nurses were sitting there, a young one with red hair and an old one with a scowl on her face. The boy’s father stopped and leaned suavely on the desk.

“Well, hello there!” the redheaded nurse said when she looked up. “How’s your wife today?”

“Just peachy keen,” the boy’s father said. “Is her doctor in today? I’d like to have a word with him.”

“He was here earlier,” the nurse said, “but now he’s gone. He won’t be back until tomorrow. I can leave a note telling him you’d like to speak to him.”

“Would you do that?”

“Of course!”

“You know my name?”

“Yes, I believe so,” the nurse said. “It’s Mr. Dunlap, isn’t it?”

“Mr. Dunlap has a first name, you know.”

She giggled and her face turned a deeper shade of pink. “I think I know that, too,” she said. “It’s Dick.”

“Hah-hah-hah!” he laughed. “You get a gold star!”

“I’m very good at remembering names and faces,” she said.
“I suppose I should feel flattered. Your name is Miss Hull, isn’t it?”

“My friends call me Vilma.”

“That’s an unusual name, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever known a Vilma before.”

“I think my mother knew somebody once by that name.”

“Well, it’s very pretty.”

“Why, thank you!”

“Well,” he said, “visiting hours are over and I have to leave, but I’ll be seeing you again real soon.”

“Why, yes!” she said. “I’m sure to be sitting right here the next time you come in.”

“I look forward to it,” he said with his most charming smile.

On the way home, the boy asked his father, “Who was that woman?”

“What woman?” his father asked.

“That woman you were talking to.”

“How should I know? She’s a nurse.”

“Do you think she’s pretty?”

“I don’t know. I guess so. Why?”

“Her lips were really red.”

“Were they? I didn’t notice.”

“You seemed to like her.”

“It always pays to be friendly to people.”

“You weren’t friendly with the other nurse sitting there. The old one.”

“What are you saying?”

“Why were you only friendly with the pretty one?”

His father took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at the boy. “I will not be cross-examined by a twelve-year-old boy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he said.

For the rest of the day, the boy gave his father the silent treatment. He refused to eat with him at the table. In the early evening he locked himself in his room. He took off all his clothes and, standing in front of the full-length mirror, examined every part of his body for any visible signs of schizophrenia.

Copyright 2023 by Allen Kopp

Adam the Man, Eve the Woman
~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp ~

The first man and the first woman, Adam and Eve, lived in the garden paradise known as Eden, where they had the best of everything without ever having to struggle for anything. They had lived in Eden for a very long time and they saw that it was good. They had dominion over all the growing things and all the animals in Eden and they were surrounded by the dazzling beauty of nature wherever they turned. They lived without knowledge of sickness, pain, loss, or despair and they never grew a day older. They knew only peace and happiness and contentment.

Now, Eden was enormous, as big as a small country. If Eden had any boundaries, Adam and Eve had never seen them. They were allowed to move around freely and to go wherever they wanted and do almost anything they wished.

Adam and Eve had a father, whom they referred to as G. They never saw G, but they knew he was never far from them and they communicated with him on a regular basis. G wanted them to know that everything they possessed—everything they were, everything they beheld—was because of him. To elevate Adam and Eve above the animals and to keep them from being merely his playthings, G imbued them with a quality the animals didn’t have; he gave them a thing known as Free Will.

The Tree of Knowledge was in the exact center of Eden. G told Adam and Eve clearly that they must stay away from the Tree of Knowledge, and as long as they stayed away from it they would be fine. If they didn’t obey him in this one rule, though, and went to the Tree of Knowledge and ate its fruit, they would find themselves in more trouble than they were perhaps prepared to deal with. With all the space they had to move around it and all the freedom they possessed, staying away from the Tree of Knowledge should have been easy for Adam and Eve.

One day Adam was busy in the garden giving names to the animals. Eve was feeling bored and a little lonely, so she decided to go for a walk, without thinking much about where she was going or what she was doing. She walked and walked and finally ended up in the exact center of Eden, where she saw the Tree of Knowledge in all its magnificence. She was immediately struck with the singularity of the Tree. As beautiful as all the trees were, none could match the beauty and desirability of the Tree of Knowledge. She was irresistibly drawn to it.

She remembered that she had been told to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge, so it was with some trepidation that she approached it. Because of the warnings G had given her and Adam about the Tree of Knowledge, she had the idea that if she walked over to it and touched it she might be struck by a bolt of lightning. As she approached the Tree of Knowledge, she saw that it had growing on it the most beautiful and delightful apples she had ever seen in her life. Her mouth watered at the sight of them. She wanted to taste one of them, but she knew she wasn’t allowed to even think about doing such a thing.

She reached out her hand and touched the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge. She waited for the bolt of lightning to strike her, but no such thing occurred. She laughed then and started to walk away, but when she heard a sound and looked up into the Tree of Knowledge she saw a snake, or a serpent as they were sometimes called, crawling down the trunk toward her.

She had seen snakes before and, although she didn’t like them very much, she had no reason to be afraid of them. She watched the snake come toward her, fascinated by its movement, until its face was just inches away from her own face.

“Hello, my dear,” the snake said to Eve.

“My goodness!” Eve said. “You can talk?”

“Well, of course I can talk,” the snake said. “Whenever I have something to say.”

She saw then that the snake was like so many of the other animals in the garden, except that it could talk. She had never seen an animal talking before, so she was a little surprised. If Adam had seen animals talking, he had never mentioned it. She would have to ask him as soon as she saw him again.

“Have you ever seen more delicious-looking apples?” the snake asked Eve with a smile.

“No, I don’t believe I have,” Eve said.

“They’re yours for the taking. All you have to do is reach out your hand and pick one. I would pick it for you except that I have no arms and no hands.”

“Oh, I would never do that,” Eve said. “This is the Tree of Knowledge. I’m not even supposed to be here. If G knew I was here, he wouldn’t like it.”

“Believe me, my dear, G knows you’re here. And, as you can see, there’s not a thing he can do about it. He has given you the thing known as Free Will.”

“I have to go home now,” Eve said. “Going near the Tree of Knowledge is the one thing Adam and I are never supposed to do. I’m not sure what is supposed to happen if we do go near it, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be very pleasant.”

“Please, don’t go, my dear. We’re having such a pleasant conversation. And I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” Eve asked, feeling a little flattered in spite of herself.

“That’s right. I want to have a little talk with you.”

“What about?”

“Do you ever notice that G keeps things from you?”

“I’ve spoken about that very thing to Adam on occasion,” she said to be agreeable.

“Now, do you think that’s fair?”

“No, I suppose it’s not.”

“G created everything, and yet he doesn’t let you in on any of his secrets, does he?”

“Well, he gave us all we have.”

“That’s true, but there’s so much he is keeping from you. He’s selfish in that regard. Wouldn’t you like to possess at least some of his power?”

“Well, I suppose so, but I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Of course it’s possible! All you have to do is eat just one of these apples. After all, this is the Tree of Knowledge. If you eat its fruit, the knowledge that is contained in it will be yours. It’s this knowledge that G so jealously keeps from you and Adam.”

“Do you mean that if I eat just one of the apples from the Tree of Knowledge I will know what G knows and be able to do what he does?”

“How quickly you grasp things.”

Let me think about it for a while.”

“What’s there to think about? I’m offering you the chance to do anything you want. To be everything you’re not but would like to be.”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“Why do you hesitate? Why do you doubt me?”

“I mean no offense.”

“You offend me deeply. Right to my very core.”

“Well, I don’t mean to doubt you, but I haven’t seen a single solitary thing that you can do. You’re only telling me to perform an act and I have no way of knowing if what you are saying is even true. On the other hand, I know what G is capable of. I see it everywhere and all around me. Adam and I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him.”

“Would I lie to you?”

“Since I don’t know you, how would I know that?”

“Well, now I’ve heard everything! You’re actually calling me a liar?”

“Not in so many words.”

“Here I am making the best offer to you in all of Eden, and you’re throwing it back in my face! It is absolutely beyond belief!”

“Well, all right, I’ll take one taste of the apple, if it will make you happy.”

“No, no, no! You said you wanted to think about it, so, by all means, take some time and think about it. Take as much time as you want. No, wait a minute! I have an idea. Why don’t you go and get Adam and bring him here. Then you can both taste the apple.”

“I think that’s a lovely idea,” Eve said. “Besides, I very much want him to see you, a snake who can talk! And I want him to see how impressive the Tree of Knowledge is and how delightful its apples are. I think I will go get him and bring him here!”

“Why don’t you do that little thing?” the snake said.

“All right, I will! We’ll be back before you know it!”

After Eve was gone, the snake had a good laugh at her expense. “What a dumbbell!” he said. “This is going to be even easier than I thought!”

Copyright © 2023 by Allen Kopp

Schooled in Depravity
~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp ~

John the Baptist was brought before King Herod Antipas and his wife, Herodias. He was disheveled from the rough treatment he had received at the hands of his captors, but he maintained his dignity and his composure. If he was afraid of what King Herod was going to do to him, he didn’t show it.

King Herod looked John up and down, a sneer on his lips. “Are you the Messiah everybody keeps talking about?” he asked.

“No, I’m not him,” John said. “He’s coming, though.”

“How do you know this?”

“How do I know the sun is shining? I know because it is.”

“The man is impertinent,” Herodias said.

“I hear you are a troublemaker,” King Herod said. “You preach sedition wherever you go.”

“Only peace,” John said.

“I hear you are dangerous.”

“I am but a voice crying in the wilderness.”

“You are a reckless cur!” Herodias spat out. “You should bow down before your master. You should kiss the hem of his garment and beg his forgiveness!”

“I have but one master,” John said quietly.

“What are we going to do with him?” King Herod said to himself, but out loud so everybody could hear him.

“Let’s burn him over a slow fire and hear him beg for mercy,” Herodias said.

“Is not your cup of abomination already full enough, woman?” John said.

“Are you going to let him speak to me that way?” Herodias screeched at her husband.

Salome, stepdaughter of King Herod, heard the commotion and knew something interesting was going on. She entered the room and stood beside her mother, Herodias.

“I heard you just insult my mother, the queen,” Salome said to John, a cruel smile on her lips.

“I just spoke what is the truth,” John said. “It’s time somebody did.”

“Don’t you know it’s dangerous to insult the queen, the wife of Herod Antipas?”

“When I look at you, child,” John said to Salome, “I see someone who is not yet entirely rotted through with the corruption that permeates this place and these people.”

“What kind of talk is this?” Salome said with a laugh. “It sounds as if you’re giving me some kind of a warning.”

“I am giving you a warning, child, for your own sake. Leave this wicked place tonight while there’s still a chance for you. Leave and never look back. I see when I look at you that you haven’t yet crossed the threshold that these others have crossed. They are beyond redemption, while for you there is still some hope because you are so young.”

“And if I left my home and my mother, just where would I go?” Salome asked.

“The Lord will guide you in your path if you let Him.”

“I have never heard such crazy talk in all my life!” Herodias said. “I say we kill him before he lives one more day. I say we have him tortured and listen to his bones crack!”

“No,” King Herod said quietly.

“What? Do you mean you’re going to let him live?”

“I mean I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do with him. I want to keep him alive for now until we see how this thing with the Messiah plays out.”

“You coward!” Herodias shrieked. “You’re afraid of him! You’re afraid that the stories you’ve heard of him might be true. You believe he wields some kind of mysterious power that he might use against you.”

“Hold your tongue, woman,” King Herod said, “or I will make you wish you were never born.”

As the guards led John away to the dungeon, Salome watched him go. “I don’t like him,” she said. “He makes my blood turn to ice water.”

That night, when Salome was alone in her bedchamber, she couldn’t stop thinking about John. She imagined him beside her in her bed, his huge hands running over her body, his lips on hers. The thing about John, she realized, was that he moved her in some mysterious way that she didn’t understand. She hated the power he seemed to have over her but also in a way found it thrilling.

The next day was King Herod’s birthday. A huge feast was held in the palace with dozens of honored guests. The food was rich and abundant and the wine flowed freely. There were musicians, dancing girls, acrobats, even a trained bear. King Herod knew how to throw a memorable party.

All during the festivities, King Herod kept his back to Herodias and pointedly ignored her. He was disappointed in her as a wife. She was far too outspoken for her own good or for his; he cringed at the sound of her voice. She was becoming more and more like a thorn in his side that he couldn’t remove.

Salome, on the other hand, was becoming lovelier every day. She had left girlhood behind and was now a woman with a mind and a will of her own. For beauty and cunning, she could match any woman twice her age.

King Herod kept drinking more and more wine. The drunker he became, the more he abandoned caution. “Why don’t you dance for us, Salome,” he said, unable to take his eyes from her. “For me?”

Herodias bristled at these words, but Herod didn’t notice.

“I don’t feel like dancing,” Salome said petulantly.

“There is nothing I would like better at this moment than to see you dance,” King Herod said.

“Why should I?”

“Because your king requests it and today is the anniversary of your king’s birth. Won’t you grant your king a birthday wish?”

“What will you give me?”

“I’ll give you my entire kingdom.”

“And what would I do with it?”

“I have riches that your mother doesn’t even know about, jewels as big as a goose’s egg. They are yours if you will but dance for me.”

“Ho-hum,” Salome said comically, drawing a laugh from those who heard her.

“Anything I have, anything I can get, is yours.”

“You will give me anything?”

“You can name your price.”

Everybody knew that King Herod was being foolish but they watched in silent fascination to see what was going to happen. How far would he go to get Salome to dance?

She stood up and assumed a dance posture, her face covered by a veil. As if it had all been rehearsed, the musicians began playing a dance tune.

Salome danced seductively for the assembled guests but especially for King Herod. She swiveled her hips, put her arms in the air, moved her head from side to side. She used her veils to great effect to show off her face and her body. She bent forward and balanced herself on her hands; backward and joined her head with the floor as if she had no bones in her body. She shimmied and she shook. She moved all about the room so as to be seen by everybody; there was no eye that wasn’t upon her. She demonstrated a skill and dexterity that nobody believed her capable of.

When she came to the end of her dance, everyone was silent with awe. King Herod stood up and held out his arms to her and she ran into them.

“That was heavenly!” he said. “It was divine! I’ve never seen anything lovelier. You may name your price, my child, and, no matter what it is, it will not be too great!”

“I’ll tell you what I want,” she said, speaking out so everybody could hear her.

“Yes, what is it, my child?”

“I want the head of John the Baptist on a plate!”

King Herod was surprised at her request. He thought at first she was making a joke. He had offered her untold riches. Why would she want a trophy as grisly as a severed head?

“I don’t think I heard you correctly, my dear. What was that you said you wanted?”

“You heard what I said and so did everybody else.”

“This is the thing you want above all others?”

“I said so, didn’t I?”

“And what will you do with the head of John the Baptist when it is presented to you?”

“I want to look at it.”

“Are you prepared to deal with the consequences, no matter what they are?”

“Yes, yes,” she said with an impatient gesture.

King Herod clapped his hands to summon the guard. He instructed two of his most loyal and obedient men to go below with a large sword and forthwith bring forward the head of John the Baptist on a plate to present to his step-daughter, Salome.

Within minutes, two men came into the banquet hall bearing a tray between them. On the tray was the severed head of John the Baptist. King Herod motioned for them to set the tray on the table on which he and the others had earlier been eating.

Salome approached the head slowly, her eyes glittering with bloodlust. She had never been happier in her life than she was at that moment. She picked up the head by its hair in both hands, the neck dripping warm blood. She looked into the half-closed eyes and kissed the dead lips passionately. The assembled guests, schooled in depravity as they were, were utterly enchanted. It was the best birthday party they had ever seen.

Copyright © 2023 by Allen Kopp

Keep the Car on the Road
~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp ~

The mother was without warmth for her children. She treated them the same as she would any livestock. On the other hand, it must be admitted that she never mistreated them. She mended their clothes and cooked their meals and made sure no harm should come to them.

It was 1932. Woe lay upon the land. The farm used to be a going concern, but the topsoil had blown away. Nothing would grow anymore. The land was cursed, people said. Those who could left the land behind.

Ellsworth was sixteen, the oldest of the four children. One day the mother had a talk with Ellsworth that she didn’t want the others to hear.

“It’s time you left home and got out on your own,” she said.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“You know what things have been like the last few years. We can’t carry you no longer. You’re the oldest. You need to take care of yourself. We don’t have any money coming in. We can’t take care of you no more. We have to think of the little ones.”

“Do you mean you’re making me leave?”

 “You’re a man now. It’s time.”

 “I never thought you would make me leave.”

 “It’s with our good wishes. Your paw and me.”

 “When do I have to go?”

 “Don’t you think it’s better to just make a clean break?”

 “But where can I go?”

 “That’s for you to figure out.”

He began thinking about where he would go and what he would do. He packed his few meager belongings in his little valise and set the valise at the foot of his bed. He didn’t go the next day, but the day after, which was a Saturday.

He didn’t say anything to anybody. He knew the mother was looking at him, but she didn’t speak to him again after her talk with him. He said nothing to the father. There was nothing to say.

The sister and the two brothers were out in the back yard. He had been going to say goodbye to them, but he decided against it. The sister would cry, and the two brothers would be uninterested and unaffected. If there was any one thing that Ellsworth wanted to say to them, it was that their time was coming.

On a Saturday morning, without looking back, he left the only home he had ever known. He didn’t care if he never saw the place again, or the people in it.

He walked for hours without stopping. His legs seemed to move independently of the rest of his body. Finally he stopped at a small country store and bought a bottle of milk and a sandwich. He sat in the peaceful shade of an oak tree across from the store and ate. It was as fine a feast as he had ever eaten.

Yes, he had a little money that he had been saving secretly for years. It was all he had in the world. Thank God he had it now, or he would have been cast out without a penny. Little did the mother care, or the father. He thought of them now as a couple of selfish pigs. Without giving it a thought, they had had more children than they could reasonably care for. It would serve them right if they all starved now.

After eating, he kept on walking, trying to clear his mind of disturbing thoughts. He felt better now. He was cheered by the thought that he was on his own in the world for the first time in his life. And he would not fail. Failing would mean that he would die, and he didn’t want to die. Not yet anyway.

He kept walking after dark, unafraid of anything that might be out there that he couldn’t see. When he thought it was about ten o’clock, he stopped beside the road and found a spot where he might reasonably make a bed, on top of a little hillock covered with thick grass. He lay down in the grass and, finding it cool and dry and soft, soon went to sleep.

When the sun was just starting to come up, the birds woke him. He sat up with a start, not knowing at first where he was. In a rush it all came back to him. He no longer had a real bed. From now on, he would have to make his bed wherever he could. He no longer had a home. There was no longer a kitchen table where he could sit down and eat his breakfast. He started to cry a little bit and was glad there was nobody there to see him.

He continued to walk the way he started out. He didn’t know where he was going or what he would do when he got there, but the thought came into his head that God was watching out for him and would show him the way. He hoped it was true.

He walked again for hours. He had never walked so much in his life. It seemed he had walked a thousand miles and had been gone from home for weeks, but the truth was it had only been two days. He wished he had a watch so he might know the time. He would have to tell time the old-fashioned way by looking at the progress of the sun across the sky.

He didn’t know where he was. For all he knew, he might have crossed over into another state. He came to a small town that had a main street and a few stores. Ravenously hungry, he went into a diner. Two old men sitting on stools at the counter turned and looked at him and then looked away.

He sat at a crooked table with an oilcloth cover. A waitress brought him a glass of water and a menu. He gulped the water and asked for more.

“Been walkin’ a long way?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We have fried catfish today or beef stew with cornbread.”

“I’ll take the beef stew with cornbread.”

“I trust you have the money to pay.”

“I can pay.”

“Good. We get people in here who seem to think otherwise.”

“They’re hungry and the don’t have no money.”

“I guess so,” the waitress said.

He ate slowly. He was in no hurry to start walking again. His legs and his feet hurt, and he felt more tired than he had ever been before in his life. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep walking without knowing where he was going.

When he left the diner, he wanted only to find a place to rest, but he kept walking. Around dark, he came to the town of Warfield. It was a bigger town than he had yet seen. There was a constant commotion of automobiles; a town square with a courthouse, a hotel, a restaurant, and stores.

He sat down on a park bench in front of the court house and counted out his money. When he saw how little he had left, he cursed being poor and he cursed the failed farm that spawned him. He cursed his family, who caused him to be in such a terrible fix with no home to call his own. He wished he might die and not have to go on. He just didn’t have the will to go on.

He knew it was a terrible extravagance, but he wanted to get a room in the hotel. He wanted a hot bath and to sleep in a bed again, maybe for the last time. If he had a room, he could die in it if he chose to do so, quietly and privately.

Bucking up his nerve, he went inside and asked the desk clerk for a room.

“How old are you?” the desk clerk asked.

“Sixteen.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I can’t let you have the room unless you pay in advance.”

He laid the bills out on the counter and was given the key to a room on the fourth floor.

“Checkout time two p.m. If you’re not out by then, you pay for another day.”

The room was small but clean. Besides a neatly made bed with a pink chenille bedspread, there was a dresser with a spotted mirror, a chair and a small table. There were two windows looking out on the brightly lighted town square. Best of all, though, the room had its own bathroom.

He had never stayed in a hotel room before. He had never even seen a hotel room, and this one was his for as long as he paid for it.

He went into the bathroom and filled the tub with hot water. He stripped off his dirty clothes and submerged himself all the way in the water, including his head. He washed himself all over from head to toe with the lavender-smelling soap and when he was finished he did it all again.

When he was finished bathing and, wearing only his underwear, he got into the big bed and pulled the covers up to his chest. He turned off the light. There was a pleasant glow from the streetlamps four floors down. The sheet was cool on his skin. He had never known such luxury and comfort.

Tired as he was, he couldn’t keep from thinking. He wondered what his sister and brothers were doing and if they had eaten a good supper. He thought of the mother bustling around in the kitchen and the father sitting at the table smoking his pipe. He wished they could see him now.

Now that he was alone and lying in comfort, he was better able to make his plans. He had the room for one day. He had just enough money to get it for a second day. That should give him plenty of time to do what he had to do. It made him a little sad to think about ending his life, but he didn’t know what else to do. He didn’t know yet how he was going to do it—he had never even thought about it before—but when the time came he’d know what to do.

The next morning he awoke and dressed himself in the clean pants and shirt he had packed in his bag. Then, feeling hungry, he went down to the hotel lunchroom and had a light breakfast of toast and coffee. Then he went to the front desk and asked to keep the room for one more day. That left him about enough money for two more meals, as long as they were small ones.

When he was crossing the lobby to go back up to his room, a man in a dark suit stopped him. His heart leapt because he thought he was in some kind of trouble.

The man steered him to a chair. “You mind if I ask you a couple of questions, big fella?” he asked.

“What about?”

“Are you staying in this hotel?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Until tomorrow.”

“You with your folks?”

“Folks?”

“Yeah. Your parents or your family.”

“No, I’m not with anybody.”

“Here alone?”

“That’s right. Say, why are you asking me all these questions? I didn’t do anything.”

“Nobody said you did.”

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, where are you headed?”

“Up to my room.”

“That’s not what I meant. When you leave the hotel, what is your destination?”

“I haven’t got one.”

“Well, you must be going somewhere.”

“I’m going to the city.”

“What city?”

“It doesn’t matter. Any city.”

“And what do you plan on doing when you get to the city?”

“Get a job.”

“What kind of a job?”

“I don’t know. Any job I can find.”

“Can you drive?”

“Drive what?”

“A car! What else?”

“No. I haven’t ever drove.”

“You haven’t ever driven. You must speak proper English.”

“No. The answer is no. I don’t know how to drive a car.”

“Would you like to learn if you had the chance?”

“I guess so.”

“I need a driver. If you can assure me you’re not wanted by the law, I can teach you to drive. It’s not hard. All you have to do is keep the car on the road and make sure you don’t run into anything.”

“You would pay me?”

“Well, I don’t expect you to work for me for nothing.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Could you leave tomorrow?”

“I had something I was going to do tomorrow, but it can wait.”

“Meet me in the lobby at nine in the morning. We’ll have breakfast and then we’ll get started.”

Driving was easier than he expected. He surprised even himself with how steady and unafraid he was behind the wheel. After a couple of hours of  “training” on country roads, they were off to St. Louis.

“There’s nothing to driving,” the man said. “Just keep the car on the road and don’t run into anything. You have to always watch out for the other fellow because you never know what he’s going to do. It’s not that hard. Just don’t get nervous. You’ll be fine.”

“What will do when we get to St. Louis?” Ellsworth asked.

He wanted to ask a lot more questions, but the man, his new-found employer, put his head against the seat back and went to sleep. And then it started to rain. He couldn’t keep from smiling. He was driving a car in the rain. It was the happiest moment of his life.

Copyright © 2023 by Allen Kopp