Entry Appetizer #2

NO GREATER LOVE

The kitchen filled up with the smell of Roasted Turkey and Apple pie. Beth scurried from one counter to the other making sure that everything was done just right. She wiped her hands on her apron as she opened the oven to check on the golden brown Turkey. It wouldn’t be long and they would be able to sit down and eat.

“John get Zach, the Turkey is almost done!” She hollered into the next room. Beth was never a quiet one. Her laughs would come from deep in her belly and flow out loud and clear. Her normal volume when she was talking was always two times louder than anyone else. Anyone within a mile of her could hear her when she whispered. Under Beth’s loud exterior hid a sensitive heart. She shed tears during commercials. If there was someone with their hand stretched out for help, she would never pass by without doing something for them.

Beth’s soft heart was being stretched to the limit today. Her son, Zach, had come to visit. He was a world traveler and it seemed like she never got to see him. Now after three long years, he was home. How shocked Beth had been when she answered the phone earlier that day and heard his voice on the other end.

“Mom!”

“Zach? Is that you?" Tears welled up in Beth’s eyes as she pushed the receiver closer to her ear.

“Of course it is me, who else would it be?”

Take a deep breath, it really is him. Beth told herself, and then she bombarded him with questions.

“Where have you been? We haven’t heard from you in over a year! What are doing? Where are you now.”

“Mom! Stop! I’m here. I’m at the airport. I’m here at Seatac. Just come and pick me up.”

That was Zach. He was here so everyone had to drop everything and go and pick him up. Beth saw nothing wrong with that. He was her only son. Zach was the jewel in her crown. She would crow about him to her friends. He was the world famous traveler who knew more than anyone else in her life. If he was in town, she would gladly stop what she was doing and bring him home.

Zach’s father, John, was not as understanding of his son. He never could comprehend what Zach did in all those far away places. He hated the way Zach would disappear for months at a time, and sometimes a year at time. He was a simple hardworking man who knew what it was to pay his bills on time and take care of his family. He had sent Zach to the best schools. He was almost done paying off the loans from those long years of schooling. Zach had never offered to help out. It never occurred to Zach to offer. John loved Zach, but John knew that he had made some big mistakes raising Zach. Anyhow, everything seemed okay now. At least at thirty years old, Zach seemed to have turned out okay.

The trip to the airport and back was done in record time. Beth asked him a million questions and he replied with vague, nondescript. It was decided that he would get home and take a shower and rest while Beth made a ‘Thanksgiving’ meal. As far as Beth was concerned, even though it was only February, there could be no better time to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Now Beth was putting the finishing touches on the lovely feast. She moved around the dining room table adjusting the dishes. She stood back and eyed the centerpiece and then grabbed it and turned it all the way around. Shaking her head, she readjusted it back to the position it was in originally. Everything had to be just right for Zach.

Rushing back into the kitchen, Beth grabbed a stove mitten and opened the oven door to remove the Turkey.

“John, it’s done!”

John stepped into the small kitchen behind his wife. He was ready to do his duty and cut through the Turkey. John was always ready to do what he needed to do when he needed to do it. John never complained. The only person more important to Beth than Zach was John. John had been her beloved husband of more than thirty-three years. They shared everything together. He was not a very emotional man, but he was a solid man. She knew she could depend on him. He was her life. She never allowed herself to think what life would be without him. He was her anchor in the midst of the storms of life. When all else in life changed, she knew that she could count on John to be the same. And now she had both her men back in her house at the same time.

“Oh, John, isn’t this wonderful?” Beth squealed.

“Yep.”

Beth chattered away as she poured the jellied cranberry into a small serving dish. She continued talking about how wonderful this day was as she scrapped the mashed potatoes into a large serving dish and covered them. John’s response to everything that she said was a simple, “Yep” or “Uh huh.”

Finally every last thing was in place, it was time to begin. Zach came downstairs and eyed the table. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at his mother’s eager face; he just sat down in his normal seat. He sat on the left side of the table, where he had always sat whenever he was home. Beth sat directly opposite him and John took his place at the head of the table. The three bowed their heads automatically. John offered up a short prayer of thanks for Zach’s return and a blessing over the food. No sooner was the prayer over, Beth began questioning Zach again.

“Mom, can you just let me eat. I promise I’ll tell you everything later.”

“Leave the boy alone, Mama,” John said.

Beth couldn’t help staring at Zach as he dished out his green beans. She drank in her son as he reached for the mashed potatoes. She couldn’t believe that he was sitting at their table after three long years. After one year of not hearing from him, thinking he might be dead or something, he was now sitting in his usual seat eating a meal she had prepared. She turned to look at her husband chewing his food so systematically. He sat in the same chair that he had been sitting in for their entire married life. She had both the men in her life sitting with her at the same table. Things couldn’t get much better than this.

The three adults ate their meal in silence. It wasn’t until they got to the dessert that Beth dared to ask another question.

“Zach, where were you this past year?” Her mind added, “We thought you were dead.” But she knew better than to say that out loud.

Zach sipped his coffee and poked around at his apple pie. He looked up at Beth and said, “I’m sorry mom, I just needed to get away.”

Beth’s brow furrowed. Get away? What did he mean by that? He already was away. He had been away for two years before he stopped communicating for a year. Beth moistened her lips and took a deep breath. Then she looked over at John. Her husband was staring down at his pie. He was studying his pie as if the piece of pie was going to give him some new revelation about life.

Beth took another deep breath and said, “What do you mean son? You were already over in Thailand. Where else did you have to go? How much farther away did you need to go?”

Zach lowered his coffee cup and looked into Beth’s eyes. There was something about the way he was looking at her. It reminded her of when he was a little boy. His eyes pleaded with her. It was that ‘please help me, mama’ look. What did he need her to help him with? She would be more than happy to do anything for the pride and joy of her life.

“I went to China to teach English.”

Beth wanted more, but she realized she wasn’t going to get more. She had lived with only men in her life for long enough to realize you can’t drag anything out of them unless they are ready to tell you. Dinner was over and she was left to clear up. The men moved into the family room to watch the television. There would be some game on or something to amuse them as she cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. Beth was almost done loading the dishwasher when she heard the kitchen door swing open behind her. She just assumed that John had come in to get himself a cold drink. The next thing she knew someone clamped their big hand over her mouth. She struggled, but whoever it was kept her still. His mouth came up next to her ear and then he whispered hoarsely, “Mama, don’t make a sound, I’ll release my hand but promise me you won’t say a word.” Beth nodded meekly. Zach slowly removed his hand and turned his mother around to face him. Beth’s eyes were as big as saucers. She started to open her mouth and Zach put his finger on his lips. She shut her mouth.

Still whispering, Zach continued, “Mama, I came back because I had to tell you something. Mama, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I have to tell you this. I can’t keep this secret any longer.”

She wanted to say “What Zach, what?” but when she opened her mouth to voice her question, he immediately raised his finger to his lips again. She closed her mouth.

“Listen, Mama, do not say anything, no matter what I tell you, please do not say anything!”

Zach looked back towards the door leading to the dining room. Then he grabbed Beth’s elbow and whispered, “Let’s go outside onto the back porch.” Beth just nodded. She had no idea what was going on and frankly speaking she was getting a bit scared. Maybe all his time in all those far away countries had made him crazy. After all, it had been three years since she last saw him and one year since she last spoke to him. She looked back towards the door leading to the dining room. How she wished that John would walk through the door. John would know what to do. John always knew how to handle everything.

Once Beth and Zach were outside, he stopped whispering but he kept his voice low. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but I really need to talk to you alone and you must not say anything. Mama, your voice is so loud; I don’t want you to say anything.” Beth just nodded.

“This is going to be very hard for me, so just be patient and let me get through everything.” Zach seemed to be having trouble breathing. He took several deep breaths and then he started up again. “Okay, there is no other way to do this than to just come right out with it! Dad is not who you think he is, Mama, he is a very, very horrible man.”
Beth started to open her mouth to protest, but Zach reached out and covered her mouth with his hand. “No, listen, just listen to me. I have to say this. I wasn’t going to say anything, but something happened recently that made me realize I have to say this.”

Now Beth knew Zach was crazy. He must have gotten one of those funny viruses from Asia. It went to his brain and affected him. His father was the most loyal and loving man in the entire world. There was not a bad bone in his body. Maybe Zach had become delusional. Beth had heard about how when people got malaria they would have hallucinations, maybe he was having malaria. She reached over and touched his forehead to feel if it was warm.

“Listen to me, mother, I know this is hard for you to believe. You love Dad so much. Listen to me, what I am telling you is the truth. When I was little he did some terrible things to me. I never told you. I always thought they were my fault. I never dared tell anyone. That is why, as soon as I could I went to college and I hardly came back home. In fact, I tried to get as far away as I could from here. I never wanted to say anything before because I couldn’t understand how he could be this wonderful husband and father and yet such a wicked guy at the same time. It just didn’t make sense. For the last year, I was not in China, mama, I was not in China at all. I was living just one state away. I was down in Oregon. I had planned to never come back again. Something happened that made me realize I had to come back whether I wanted to or not.”

Beth just kept shaking her head as tears streamed down her plump cheeks. Her precious boy had gone totally bonkers. What was she going to do? She felt torn up inside. She tried to reach for his arm to stop him from continuing this silliness, but he pulled away from her.

“Listen to me, I can see you don’t believe me, just let me finish. Mother, the reason I knew I had to come back was because I met up with Jim. You remember Uncle Mike’s son? Mama, Jim confessed to me that dad did horrible stuff to him too! But that wasn’t even what really made me want to come back, Jim told me something else that…oh, Mama…I just don’t know….” His voice trailed off and he took quick short breaths. “Mama, Jim said he thinks Dad has graduated to doing even more horrible things to boys he doesn’t even know.”

Beth couldn’t stand it anymore, she whispered loudly, “Zach, stop this! Zach you need help!”

“Mama, no, listen, please! Jim said that in the last year ten little boys in an 80 mile radius have disappeared. They end up in shallow graves. These little boys were tortured and no one knows who did it. Mama, I’m sure you’ve heard about this on the news.”

Tears streamed slowly down Beth’s cheeks. She just kept shaking her head, but now she wasn’t sure why she was shaking it. She remembered the news. She remembered how sad she felt for the mother of those poor boys. Their boys would never grow up and travel the world. Those mothers would never be able to cook a nice meal for their boys ever again. She remembered those terrible news items. She remembered thinking how the world was getting worse by the day. She also remembered how John started disappearing on long business trips about a year ago. At first she had asked him if she could go along, but he told her that he needed to go alone. She never gave it another thought.

“Mama, the only reason I think it might be Dad is because Jim told me that the boys all have the same mark cut into their left thigh just above the knee. Remember, mama, when I told you I fell against the barbed wire fence and got cut on my left thigh?” Just to make sure she remembered, Zach pulled up his shorts and twisted his left leg around so his mom could see the old scar on his left thigh. Beth reached forward and touched it. As she touched his scar, sobs erupted from deep within her. Zach folded himself over her and tried to stifle the sounds. “Shush, Mama, shush, I don’t want him to hear us.” Beth’s sobs were muffled against his huge shoulders. She groaned and repeated into his shirt, “No, no, no, no” She would have crumpled to the floor if Zach hadn’t held her up and dragged her over to the old chair on the porch.

Beth sat doubled over on the chair. She buried her head in her apron and rocked herself backwards and forwards. Not her beloved John. And how did she not know that he was torturing her very own son? How could she have thought she was a good mom and not known what was going on right under her own nose? How could the man that slept next to her night after night for thirty-three years be a cold blooded killer? Moans were the only answer to all her internal questions. Her hands were freezing. Her chest felt like a vice and the lump in her throat made her feel as though she would throw up at any moment. She swallowed hard and moaned again. Beth pressed her head further down into her apron.

“Mama, we have to make a decision. I know this is hard Mama, but you have to choose Mama. Are you going to protect Dad or are you going to turn him in. He could come out here at any time, mama, you’ve got to decide! I already know what I’m going to do, Mama, you know what you have to do.”

Beth’s mind was blank. All this was some kind of nightmare. This was supposed to be a day where things couldn’t get better, and now all she could think was that things couldn’t get any worse. The back door swung open onto the porch, John stood in the doorway looking out at the two of them. He stood quietly watching them. Beth knew he was there even though her head was buried in her hands with her apron wrapped around her. Her heart beat like an erratic African drum. Zach didn’t turn to look at his dad. He kept looking down at Beth.

“What’s going on out here?” John asked.

Beth slowly lifted her head up and peeked at John. Her face was streaked with tears. John gasped and moved forward, “Honey! What’s wrong?” He turned and barked at Zach, “What have you done to your mother?” He was already folding her in his huge arms, the arms that always comforted her when she needed comforting. But now Beth felt herself stiffen as his arms went around her. “What is it, Beth?” His voice sounded so reassuring. How could it be true? Maybe it wasn’t, maybe there was some kind of mistake. This man could not have done all the things that Zach said. “Beth, talk to me.”

“John…” Beth started to say something but Zach interrupted her and told her not to say another word. “Mama, you can’t, you don’t know what he’ll do to us”

“Zachariah Knapp what in the Lord’s Name are you talking about, Son?” John asked.

“You know good and well what I’m talking about, Father.” Zach looked straight into his father’s eyes. They stood nose to nose staring at each other. Beth looked back and forth between the two of them. Her beloved husband who she had to make a choice of whether she was going to call the police and turn him in or pretend all this was a nightmare and just keep living life the way it was. Her precious son who was the reason she had to make the most difficult choice in her life. If she failed him this time, she might as well never even think of herself as a mother again. She had not been there throughout the years he endured untold misery; but now she was here, she could make the right choice and maybe that would make up for all the years of pain he went through.

“No Zach, I do not know what you are talking about. You tell me, Zach. Tell me what you are talking about.” John was saying more this evening in the few minutes he stood on the back porch than in all his years of marriage. He was not someone who believed in talking a lot. “Zach, tell me what is going on here. Tell me now!”

Beth couldn’t take it anymore. She jerked out of her husbands embrace and shrieked, “How could you, John? All those little boys, how could you have done it? And your own son, how could you, are you a monster?” She was shaking and she didn’t know whether she dared to look at her husband. When she did look at him all she saw in his eyes was hurt. No anger, no fight, just plain unadulterated pain. It was so pure it took her breath away.

“Beth!” Her name sounded strangled as it came out of his lips.

Zach immediately stood next to his mother and put his arm around her and faced his father with a triumphant look. “That’s right dad, now the whole world is going to know what a beast you are.”

John didn’t even look at Zach; he just kept looking at Beth, pleading with his eyes, “Beth, no, please, what are you talking about. Beth how could you even think that of me. Haven’t I loved you all these years?” He sounded so sincere. Beth was confused. She looked in her husband’s face and then she turned and looked in her son’s face. Then she walked towards the kitchen door and reached for the phone. Her fingers trembled as she dialed the numbers: 9 1 1. Zach encouraged her, “That’s right, mom, you know you are doing the right thing.” John just looked at her helplessly.

As the phone rang, Beth reached down with her other hand into the top kitchen drawer and slowly pulled out the small handgun that she kept hidden there for the intruder that never did come. How ironic that she might have to use the gun against someone who had been in her home the whole time. Neither man saw her slip the gun out of the drawer and on the counter next to her. She kept staring at them as the phone rang. Finally the emergency operator answered the call. Beth’s voice trembled, “I have to report a crime. Please come to 2217 North Oak Street, Lakewood. The man that the news has been calling the barbed wire killer is here. He is my…” Beth’s voice cracked.

Zach smiled encouragingly and said, “Go ahead mom you can do it, you know you have to do this.”

Beth took a deep breath and continued, “He is my son, Zachariah Knapp.”

Zach screamed and lunged forward but not before his father grabbed him. Beth raised the gun, but John yelled at her, “No, Beth, don’t do that, I can hold him down.” Zach struggled against his father, but his father’s grip was too strong. Beth yelled into the phone, “Come quickly!! Please, please, come quickly, please help us.”

Zach’s screams turned to growls and roars as he fought to break free from his father’s strong grasp. “Mom, how could you!? Why? What have you done?”

John ordered Beth to get the rope and the masking tape from the storeroom. She did as she was told. Together they tied Zach up. He continued to scream and shout obscenities at the both of them. “You’ll never get away with this. I’ll make sure you both rot in hell for this.” Finally they put masking tape over his mouth.

John turned to Beth and asked her, “How did you know? What was it that helped you make the right choice?” Beth reached up and touched her husband’s weather worn cheek, and she whispered in that ever so loud whisper, “I remembered the day long ago, when I looked through the back window and saw him playing with near the fence. I had forgotten until right now. He didn’t see me. I saw him accidentally cut his thigh on the barbed wire as he was trying to climb over the fence. I remembered that. But even if I hadn’t remembered, I think I would have known that it was him and not you.”

“But Beth, I know you, you love Zach, how did you have the strength to make the choice to turn him in?”

Tears filled her eyes as Beth turned and looked into her son’s eyes and answered, “It is because I love you that I decided to turn you in. I know you need help. I love you, son.”

Word Count: 4,106