Violent Faith
A Novella by
Matthew David Stephens
Copyright by Matthew Stephens 2011
Published by Smashwords
Disclaimer
Throughout human history man has used the name of God or other religious figures to carry out their own ambitions. This has led to murder, rape, and even war. These men, who claim to be prophets have brainwashed their family, friends, and anyone who will listen into believing they have spoken to the higher power and use it to their own advantages.
This is not to say that all people who have claimed to talk to God are hurtful and destructive, but as history would show, a lot of major religious leaders have committed ultimate sins (in most people's opinions). They have added their personal beliefs and joys into what they preach. Thus making themselves "God".
The story to follow is entirely fictional and is by no means an attack on any religious group or belief. The characters, places, and events in the story are completely made up. So follow me, and a little boy named Billy, in a story of a corrupt spirituality and a fight to survive it.
Chapter One
The day was hot and the smell of freshly cut grass hung in the air. School had just let out for the summer and the sound of giddy children echoed off the houses. Billy Brogan was walking along a cracked and broken sidewalk. He walked along whistling and swinging his dirty old book bag. He couldn't wait to see what summer had in store for him. He imagined playing outside with his buddy Ryan, trading baseball cards or building a tree fort in his back yard. A burst of excitement came over him and he started running for home. When he saw his house, he noticed something that sent his excitement into overdrive. A large semi truck was parked on the street.
"Dad's home!" he shouted and ran as fast as his little legs would take him. He darted up the porch steps and burst through the front door. He quickly kicked off his shoes and hung his book bag on the coat rack.
"Mom? Dad? Anyone home?" Billy asked as he walked through the unusually quiet living room. When no one responded, he slowly walked upstairs. He went to his bedroom and looked around. The room was empty. He took a moment to admire his batman posters, as usual, then went back into the hallway. He was heading toward his parents room when the door suddenly opened and his mother stood with tears in her eyes.
"Hey Billy, can you come in here for a second?" She said and watched as he made his way in.
"Your father and I need to talk to you about something." He walked in and saw his father sitting on the bed with his hands folded in his lap.
"Hey buddy, how's it going? I miss ya." He was trying to sound cheery and held his arms out to embrace his boy. Billy ran to him and gave him a good hard hug, burying his face in his chest. He could smell that familiar scent of Old Spice cologne.
"How ya been scout?" He said and messed up Billy's blond hair with his big calloused hand while holding him tight.
"Can you take a seat for a second so me and your mom can talk to you?"
Billy let go of his father and crawled up on the bed next to him. He could see the unease in his parents eyes and could almost smell the frustration they were holding back. He knew that whatever this talk was going to be about, it wasn't going to be good.
"Well this isn't very easy to tell you, but your mom and I are not doing so well. You see, when grown-ups get older they sometimes grow apart." His father paused and looked down to the floor.
"Oh Jesus Christ Bill, he doesn't need a speech." Billy's mother said from across the room and bent down. Billy looked into his mother's eyes and felt her hands caressing his wrists.
"What your father is trying to say is that we're not going to be living together anymore. You will still be able to spend time with both of us and we love you very much, but things are going to be a little different from now on." When she finished, she had tears running down her face which caused Billy's heart to sink and his own eyes began to water.
Bill Brogan tried to calm his wife and son down by rubbing the middle of their backs. Susan slapped his hand away and looked at him with hateful bloodshot eyes. Bill stood up shaking his head and walked out of the bedroom. He closed the door behind him and that's when Billy fell apart. All of his excitement was completely drained. He hardly ever saw his father as it was, and now this? He pressed his face into his mother's chest and began to sob in long drags. He felt the warmth of his mother's hands as she rubbed the back of his head, then she pulled him away and held his cheeks.
"Your father's leaving us and I can't afford this place on my own. So your going to have to go stay with your aunt Linda and uncle Brian for a little bit. At least until I can find a place, OK!" She let go of his face and started rubbing his arms. They looked at each other through blurry eyes.
"It will be alright, I promise!" She pleaded into her son's sullen face. Billy hated the idea of leaving for the summer. He hated the way his dad walked out of the room without the slightest care. But most of all, he hated that awful look on his mother's face.
"Alright." He said, sniffling and wiping his eye's. They hugged each other never wanting to let go.
***
Billy had been fast asleep for two hours. Susan and Bill sat at the kitchen table. The clock on the wall read a quarter to midnight. Susan's cheeks were chapped from the constant flow of tears. She was using a soggy Kleenex to dab them. Bill was laid back in a chair looking at his wife and feeling no pity for her.
"Look, you should of known this was coming." He told her while taking a swig off a Budweiser bottle.
"What did you think I was going to do? I come home and you treat me like a stranger. Come on Susan!" He set his beer down with a thud and stood up. He walked to the fridge and started packing a cooler.
"I treat you like a stranger because you are a stranger. You asshole!" She screamed and slammed her fists on the table.
"I can't believe your going to leave your family for some nasty truck stop hooker. What the hell is wrong with you?" She started crying into the disintegrated tissue once again. With no remorse, Bill walked to the table and slammed his palms down.
"She's not a hooker and she treats me a hell of a lot better than you." He screamed in her face. This sent Susan into a heap of sorrow.
"That's enough, I'm out of here!" He grabbed his cooler and headed for the door. He was putting his shoes on when he heard a familiar voice.
"Daddy?" Billy said rubbing his eyes at the bottom of the stairs. Bill stood looking at his confused son. He walked to him, knelt down and began hugging him. Billy stood in his father's grasp limply and listened as he was told that his father loved him very much and they would see each other soon.
"Love you." Billy muttered, feeling his father rub the top of his head like always, then watched as he stood up and walked out the door.
When he heard the semi fire up, he walked to the window and stared blankly at the rigs lights. He always loved the way they looked at night. It reminded him of a Christmas tree. After ten minutes, which seemed like a second, the truck pulled away from the curb and drove off, leaving him and his mother alone like so many times before.
When the truck was out of sight, he walked to his weeping mother who was hunched over at the kitchen table. He rubbed her back and played with her hair until she was done ridding herself of the hurt. She tried straightening herself up, smearing thick black lines of mascara across her cheeks. Her dirty blond hair was lying over her shoulders in a rat's nest. Then she got up warily and escorted Billy back to his room.
"You have to get some sleep, honey! We have a long drive tomorrow." Susan gave him a light kiss on the cheek. She sat on the edge of the bed watching her boy slowly fall into a deep sleep. Then she left the room and went to her own. She walked around admiring the family pictures that hung on the walls. When she looked at the happy smiling faces, she could feel tears wanting to come again and shoved them back down. A small wooden jewelry box sat on the dresser. She opened the top, pulled off her wedding ring, and threw it in. She then went to her bed to sleep in it for the last time, hoping tomorrow would bring a brighter day.
Chapter Two
They had been on the road for three hours with three more to go. Susan kept looking at her sleeping little boy in the passenger seat. She told herself she had to be strong. She did not want him to see her like that ever again. She felt it was way too much of a burden for a ten year old. Once they made it out of the city, the highway became a quiet and lonely stretch of road. Their Volkswagen putted along the vacant interstate and Susan was enjoying the way the sun was spread out over the distant hills when Billy woke up.
"Hey honey, did you have a good nap?" Susan asked and flicked a cigarette out the window. She had been chain smoking the whole way and was already putting a good dent in pack number two. Billy hated the smell, but loved the cool breeze that came through the cracked window. He sat up and stretched his arms to the ceiling and looked out to the open land.
"Yeah, I'm hungry!' He told his mom and began digging in a cooler that was identical to the one his father had the night before. Inside was a couple of bologna sandwiches with mayo. He grabbed one out and began to scarf it down. They both seemed to be in better spirits this morning, stuffing the hurt deep down inside.
After Billy finished his lunch, they spent the next hour and a half talking about what was to come in the near future. Susan explained to him that they had to move out of their house so quickly because his father had put it on the market behind her back and offered her no financial help in order for her to keep it.
"Apparently he had been planning this for awhile." She said flatly and lit another smoke. She told him that she planned to stay with a friend in the city, and that he couldn't go because they like to stay up and party to the wee hours of the morning.
"That is no place for a little boy." She told him and continued by explaining that his father was moving in with "a friend" and was going to be on the road all the time, so he couldn't go with him either.
"So that's why your going to stay with your aunt and uncle!"
"You remember Linda and Brian, Don't you? They have a little girl your age, Katherine, and a new baby. I think you'll like it. They have a lot of room to run around. Christ! I haven't seen sis in about two years now, so it will be good for me to visit too." She reasoned and looked at Billy who was staring out the window.
"You're not very happy are ya?"
"I don't wanna go there. I just want to go back home to the way things were." He pouted, showing the emotions he had been trying to repress.
"I know, I know!" She pitied him and a short time later they were moving up a long dirt driveway. Up ahead was a two-story house with white siding and red shutters. There was a large porch that reached across the entire front. Two old huge dingy barns were off to the left. A chicken pen wrapped around one of the barns with a good couple handful of chickens clucking and nodding inside. A black Labrador was running playfully around the yard. He noticed the car and came running along side of it to greet them.
Susan parked the car and could see her sister coming out on the porch holding the baby. A little girl with blond pigtails followed close behind her. Billy and Susan exited the car and walked up to the house. Linda and Katherine were both dressed in long sleeve white gowns even though the temperature was near eighty-five.
"Hello, Susan!" Linda said in a "long time, no see" voice. She walked to Susan when they reached the top of the porch and gave her a light hug.
"-and this must be little Billy. Not so little anymore, huh?" She said bending down and giving him a little pinch on the cheek.
"If you guys are thirsty, I just made some lemonade." She said while bouncing a baby. Susan shrugged and put her hands up to gesture "no thanks."
"Sure!" Billy piped up and Linda instructed Katherine to go help her cousin fetch it. The kids went inside and the sister's took a seat on the porch swing to catch up. They talked about the upcoming divorce, and how Bill could be such an asshole, while the kids played with the lab in the front lawn. After a good long talk, Brian Smith came walking around the house.
"Well, hello there!" He said to Susan as she stood up to give him a hug. He was a very tall and stocky man. Susan's head had only come up to his chest. He had a long bushy beard and wore a long red flannel with suspenders. Susan could smell a foul odor coming from his arm pits and was relieved when he let her go.
"Things not so good at the home front I hear." He said. Susan agreed and thanked them so much for taking Billy for awhile.
"No problem! I could use an extra hand around here.' He smiled and went in to wash up.
Susan stayed for supper, noticing the "see no, hear no, speak no evil" and "put your faith in Jesus" signs that hung on the kitchen walls. Brian elected her to say grace before eating. Susan hadn't been to church since she was a child and kept it short and sweet, feeling the interrogating eyes on her with every word. Susan and Billy gorged themselves on fried chicken and mashed potatoes, then helped to clean off the table.
"Well, I'm gonna go and thanks again. I owe you one!" Susan told them after the dishes sat in the strainer. They told her she was more than welcome to stay and didn't see the point of driving all the way back this late. She refused and said she didn't mind. Besides, she had a lot of packing to do. She hugged Billy and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He sat silent and watched as she walked out and drove off into the night.
The kids were instructed to go to bed at eight. Billy was used to going to bed around ten, so he lay in bed staring at the blank walls. He wished his batman posters hung there. The house was very quiet. The only sound came from a limb of a maple tree lightly tapping his bedroom window. He watched the limb until he drifted off into dreamland.
Chapter Three
"Rise and shine! There's no time for sleeping in." The voice of Brian Smith drifted into Billy's dreams. Billy reached up and rubbed his eyes before opening them. When he sat up, he could see it was still dark outside. He had a brief moment of not realizing where he was, then remembered. He looked to his bedside table and the red numbers on the small digital clock read 5:30 a.m.
He swung his feet down to the wooden floor and began walking to the bathroom across the hall with his hair sticking up in all directions. He flipped on the light and took a moment to look at his groggy appearance in the mirror. He cupped his hands under the faucet and splashed water on his head to wet down his hair, brushed his teeth, and hurried downstairs.
The house was very quiet. He walked through the living room still half dazed from sleep and noticed for the first time that there was no television. He stopped and wondered how he was supposed to watch his morning shows. He proceeded into the kitchen. Linda was at the oven frying eggs and the smell of bacon was strong. Katherine was seated at the table with her arms folded in her lap and watching the baby who was lying in a bassinet and making goo-goo sounds. Billy pulled out a chair and began to sit down, Brian came walking in from outside.
"I'm glad to see you could join us this morning! We like to get up early around here so we can get the chores done, especially on Sunday's." Brian informed him and sat down at the table.
"You look a little tired, but you'll get used to it. After breakfast, I'll show you how to feed the chickens. We also have some pigs in the barn that need to be fed and have their pens cleaned. So eat up!" Brian finished and Linda brought the bowls of eggs, bacon, and toast to the table.
Billy didn't like the idea of having to do chores. In fact, he hated it, but the rumbling in his stomach from the smell of the food took his mind off of it for the moment. He reached for a piece of toast and Brian's huge hand came slapping down on his with tremendous force. Billy jerked his hand back feeling the sting and let out a small cry of shock. He glanced at Katherine, who looked back at him with widened eyes, then he looked at the redness on his hand and rubbed it.
"You should not be so anxious boy! We have not graced the lord yet." Brian was looking at him with eyes of burning fire. Billy felt like crying. He had never been treated so badly over an honest mistake. Instead, he held it in as Brian went through the prayer and he made sure to say "amen" when he was finished to avoid being scolded again.
They all ate a nice helping before being excused. Katherine helped her mother clean off the table and do the dishes, Brian and Billy headed out to do the day's work. Billy followed behind his uncle as he walked to the barn. He watched him unlock a giant eye hook and slide the barn door open. The sweet smell of hay struck his nose immediately. Brian walked to a pallet and grabbed a bag of feed.
"Can you grab a bucket over there, Billy?" He pointed to a stack of pales in the corner. Billy walked over, pulled one out of the stack, and went back to his uncle. Brian filled the bucket with feed and told Billy to follow him. They went out to the chicken pen.
"OK, just grab big handfuls and start chucking it over the fence. I hope you're paying attention because you'll be responsible for doing this every morning." Billy did as instructed, moaning on the inside and wishing so badly that his mother didn't leave him here.
"Good! When your done come back to the barn." Brian stomped away.
When the pale was empty, Billy headed back to the barn. The sun was starting to rise and the sky held a light blue color. Brian had been transferring a large hog from one pen to another. Once he was done, he waved Billy over. Billy stood looking into the empty hay-filled pen as his uncle went and fetched a wheel barrel and a pitch fork. He set the wheel barrel down outside the pen and handed the pitch fork to Billy. Brian told him he wanted him to dig out all the manure and put it in the barrel. He slowly walked into the pen scrunching his nose at the stink. He was running his hand down the handle of the pitch fork and-
"Ouch! Jesus Christ!" He shouted.
Billy dropped the fork and looked at his hand. A rather large splinter was sticking out of his forefinger. He pulled it out and watched as a little dot of blood started forming, then a huge hand belted him across the side of his head throwing him against the pen wall and sending him to the floor that was covered with hay and feces. Billy laid there rubbing his temple in shock.
"I don't ever want to hear you use the lord's name in vain in my presence, or anyone else's for that matter. Now get up!" Brian barked hovering over the boy and flinging spit in every direction.
"Just because your parents choose to live in sinful ways doesn't mean you can bring that kind of blasphemy to my house." He shouted as Billy stood up.
"Now get to work!' Brian marched away.
Billy cleaned the pens for the next two hours, going from one to the next as his uncle moved the pigs. His back ached and his head throbbed, but he didn't dare complain. He was scared and he was stuck here. When the work was finished, Brian told him to go get cleaned up for church. Billy walked to the house rubbing his back, then stopped to pet the dog. The sun was now out full force and it was already hot and sticky. He watched Linda and Katherine hang clothes in the back yard for a moment, then went in and did as he was told.