Equal Portions

Equal Portions


Becky shook Tom, then shook him some more, until he finally opened his eyes.  He appeared to be having trouble focusing, and a huge knot was already forming on the left side of his forehead.  Both were the result of the blow to the head he'd taken from the cast iron skillet Becky had wielded like a club a few minutes ago.

"I don't understand, Tom," she said.  "When we got married, we agreed to share and share alike."

Tom slowly rolled onto his stomach, then painfully pushed himself up to all fours.  "But, dearest," he replied, speaking slowly, "I've always shared with you.  Half of everything I've earned or caught I've always given--"

The dull clang echoed in the small kitchen as another blow caught Tom's head, this time on the right side, and cut off his explanation.  Becky's backhand wasn't as strong as her forehand, and he merely collapsed without losing consciousness. 

As he lay moaning, his hands made uncoordinated efforts to grasp his head, which he was sure he needed to do in order to keep his skull from falling apart.

As his wife watched him, she recited the list of his sins.

"I found the box, Tom, the one where you hid your pay stubs.  You've gotten a pay increase each of the last three years and every year you told me nobody got one, because business wasn't so good.  You lied to me about our money."

Tom moaned weakly.

"You spent the extra money on women, didn't you?  I would have shared them with you, Tom, truly I would have, but you never gave me the chance.  You didn't share."

He didn't speak, only continued to moan.

"And, as if all that weren't bad enough, now it's the children.  You stole from me directly.  How could you do it? I thought I knew you.

His words badly slurred by the blows to his head, Tom spoke at last.  "It's true; it's all true.  I'm so sorry, pet.  I am.  It's just that I was so hungry and Sally was always your favorite anyway--"

Becky's two-handed overhand smash crushed Tom's skull against the cement floor.

"You said I could have Joe, so Joe is who I get," she said.  She watched blood and brain matter ooze from the corpse's ruined head for a few moments, then got up and walked over to the cupboard.  She removed a buck knife and ladle from a drawer, then returned to Tom's body.  The sharp blade sliced right through Tom's shirt and undershirt and into the belly beneath.  Becky gently grasped the upper end of the stomach and sliced it open.

"Let's see, now," she said to herself.  "We'd been eating about ten minutes, so. . ."She dipped the ladle in twice, emptying it into her own stewpot each time.

"Share and share alike, Tom, just like I promised."


[482 words]