I sat in the dim living room. Some PlayStation game rumbled on the T.V., my son Ryker was engrossed in his game. I watched quietly from my chair in the center of the living room.
“Hey, don’t smash the joysticks like that, You’ll snap em’ right off. I ain’t payin for another one of those,” I called to him. He continued to stare off, intense focus on the screen. “You hear me?” I asked, a bit louder.
“Yes!” Ryker yelled back.
“Watch that tone with your father.” Missy, my wife yelled from the kitchen. She was preparing supper, tonight would be a homemade beef stew. “Johnny, go fetch me the plates from the cabinet, would ya?” She yelled again.
Me and Ryker stared at each other in silence for a moment. See, my wife does this weird thing. She’s pregnant–She was, pregnant. And she talks to the ‘baby’ as if he’s alive. Not just alive, but as if he’s been alive for the last 10 years or so. Missy is the love of my life, but after she had her miscarriage, everything has changed. She’s been crazy about having another baby, so much so to the point where our sex life is driven off of pure insanity. Just a competition each night to see if I can finish fast enough for her.
There’s no passion in anything we do anymore. It’s been almost a year since we lost the baby.
“Johnny! Now!” She snapped, and I nudged my head towards the kitchen. Ryker groaned but followed accordingly.
The clattering of plates being taken from the cabinet sounded through the house and I settled further into my chair. I don’t know if Missy knew the difference between Ryker and “Johnny”. She would talk to Ryker as Ryker, but also as Johnny when he was supposed to be present. Either way, it wasn’t a problem to be dealt with right now. She was grieving and I wasn’t going to throw a wrench into it and fuck our marriage further into the trenches.
Approximately 30 minutes later, supper was ready. Missy rang the little bell that she had perched on a special shelf in the kitchen. Nobody was allowed to touch it, really she wouldn’t even let you look at it for too long. It was porcelain white with only one single blue flower on it. I sluggishly lifted myself from the soft chair and walked into the kitchen. Smells of meat and freshly cut vegetables wafted towards me. I was a bit offput by a smell of rot, but assumed she had picked a bad carrot on accident and hadn’t had time to dispose of it.
“Looks great, honey,” I said, placing a napkin on my legs.
She hummed happily, nodding in response. Ryker stayed quiet, not lifting his spoon from the bowl once.
“Ryker quit actin like it’s goin to hurt you and eat it.”
“No daddy. I saw what mommy put in it.” Ryker said, barely loud enough for me to hear him.
Missy shot him a look of horror. Anger wrinkled in the lines of her face. “How dare you disrespect my cooking like that! My own son accusing me of tampering with food?!” She screamed in his face, throwing her spoon across the table.
“Hey, Calm down Missy! What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled at her, standing up to grab the spoon. Ryker was sobbing and in between heaving breaths almost screaming.
“Mommy used a meat from the freezer.” Ryker pointed, but it almost looked as if his finger was–No, not possible. I must’ve been imagining things.
I bent down to grab the spoon and set it down as calmly as possible, not wanting to freak Ryker out anymore. I looked at Missy but her eyes compelled me to look away.
“I said not to say anything, you brat!” My wife chucked the bowl at Ryker’s head, he had no time to move so glass shards sliced his forehead before shattering all across the floor.
“Where did you get the meat, Missy?” I questioned her in a low tone, slowly creeping over to where Ryker was. Blood was dripping out of his cut. Any fast movements and I could be next.
“Johnny gave it to me. He said he found it in the garden.” She smiled and looked over at Ryker.
I rubbed my eyes and when I did, Ryker was no longer standing there bleeding. Ryker wasn’t there at all anymore. Both me and Missy were sat alone at the table. I looked around, thinking I was going insane.
I looked down into the bowl, Ryker stared back.