Entry date: 3-19-2023 - Corned Beef (and Mary) - Letters to My Friends

Dear Friends,

Corned beef is a favorite of mine. We are having some later as part of a delayed St. Paddy's Day celebration and dinner with our soon-to-be in-laws over at Elise's house. Should be delicious. Rhondi makes an excellent corned beef and cabbage.

It will be good to get a chance to talk with Morgan's parents. We have met a few times but due to circumstances, have never really gotten a chance to get to know each other. I like the idea of having good relationships with our in-laws. Call me crazy, but it seems like it's the best thing for everyone.

Yesterday was one of those days where a few more hours here and there would have been nice. We had a good jam session but I would have liked to have been celebrating Renee's birthday a lot earlier. I feel like I missed out on quality time with my people and could have gotten know Renee's family a bit better.

I'm looking forward to June and early July and not having anything to do during the day for a while.

*****

It worried Mary that Connie was not talking about the new note. As if things weren't already off kilter in her world, something was definitely worse now. The fans weren't helping either. They were taunting the would be dismantlers by spinning faster and faster.

"Talk to me, Con."

"I just can't, Mary. This is too much."

"I know. What can I do?"

"Go turn off the power at the breaker."

"Okay," Mary said feebly. She knew it wouldn't do any good but, at the same time, didn't want to verbalize the thought. Maybe the power would actually turn them off.

The breaker box was on the side of the house. As Mary walked towards it, Connie opened the new note back up from Jim. It read:

Doll Baby,

You've got to leave Mary's house now. If you don't, either she will kill you or you will kill her. This thing isn't going to be satisfied until there is human blood spilled.

Go.

Now.

Leave the tools for Mary. They might be able to help her. I don't know.

But go or die.

As much as I want to be with you again, I don't want you to die now. It's not your time.

I love you.

Jimmy Jim Jimmer

No one knew that she called him "Jimmy Jim Jimmer" other than him, but how could Jim be messaging her? It had to be whatever this was fucking with her head. Mary wouldn't harm her but how could she tell Mary that what the note said?

Connie watched Mary round the corner and could hear her lifting up the panel.

"Okay, Con! The power to the whole house is off."

Connie looked at the fans. They were each spinning at a different speed. The one that had been fucking with Mary from the beginning was spinning the fastest, but in the opposite direction as the other two. None of them seemed to be slowing down.

Mary came back from the side of the house. Her eyes were glued to the fan. What she had suspected was true. The power was not coming from inside the house.

The new porch lights started flickering on and off and the sprinkler system sprang to life.

"The power is clearly not off," Connie said sharply.

Mary, a bit stung by the tone of Connie's voice, looked meekly at her friend.

"I'm sure I turned it off. I've had to turn it off many times before when Randy was working on things."

"Did it say 'Main'?"

"Yes, Connie. I'm not an idiot."

Now it was Connie's turn to be stung by Mary's tone of voice. Jim's words echoed in her head. At what point was whatever this was going to take control of one of them, she wondered. Clearly it could do whatever it wanted and knew things about them that only they would know.

"Let's take another look together," Connie said as she stood up.

The two women walked back to the panel. As Connie reached towards it and began to lift it up, Mary started to scream.

Hundreds of black widow spiders began to spill out of the panel. Before Connie could pull her arm away, a dozen or more attached themselves to her arm and began to bite her. She let out a howl that pierced Mary's ear drums and shocked into a moment of stunned silence.

Mary stared at Connie as the spiders began to move towards her face, neck, and shoulders. As Connie stumbled to her knees, she was swiping at her right arm with her left hand, trying to knock the spiders off. Within a second, the vicious spiders were swarming Mary's feet and lower legs and starting to crawl up Connie's thighs toward her torso.

"The fan, Mary," Connie croaked, her voice trembled with waves of pain. "Take out the fan."

Mary reached out to pull Connie away from the spiders as the arachnids began to bite into both of their flesh more rapidly. Mary felt as if she was being jabbed with a thousand hot needles.

"Go!" Connie cried.

Mary ran to the shed and grabbed the pickaxe. She nearly stumbled getting through the shed door but ran towards the fan with the pickaxe raised over her head. She intended to slam the pickaxe into the small black semi-oval that protruded slightly from under the blades.

She swung the pickaxe with all of her might and it landed with a dull thud. The force of her blow sent her into the chaise lounge she had sat on when she took off her boot a few days earlier and she toppled over the chair and went skidding onto her knees and palms.

She turned her head to look at the damage she had inflicted, but the fan was not there.

In it's place was Connie's body, hanging from the patio ceiling. Mary's pickaxe was imbedded in her skull and the only movement coming from Connie's body was wave after wave of spiders spilling out of her gaping mouth.

(to be continued)

*****

See you tomorrow.

Seemed fitting.