Home Sweet Home

Melissa crushed the thick snow that glittered from the sunset under her feet as she approached the cabin, carrying a dead deer with dangling limp legs over her shoulder. She placed it in the thick snow in front of the wooden house. Home. Reaching into the pocket on her blue jeans she pulled out a set of keys and opened the door, leaving the wind and snow behind her.
An explosion echoed through the thick pine trees, guarding the cabin as she walked through the door.
Melissa sauntered over to the countertop in the kitchen, dragging her fingers over the paneled wooden walls covered with a thick dust. She picked up a rectangular wooden box filled with old snapshots of her family playing in the snow in front of the cabin and inhaled a blast of cedar through her nose. Closing her eyes and smiling she lit a candle. The scent of strawberry rising from the flames reminded her of mom.
She remembered Brian saying, “He’s dead you can’t take him with you.” She took the deer anyway, picking him up right out of the mud. His eyes looked so innocent rolled over black with death, his legs limp and twisted the wrong way looked helpless reaching for the ground when she lifted the buck over her shoulder. “You’re too sweet,” Brian said to her as she trekked away with the deer.
She flicked the switch on the wall, flooding the room with light. A poster with the words “Strike a Blow for Mother Earth” graced the wall on the left side of the room next to a black and white picture of Che Guevara. Pictures of her mom, dad, and two brothers stared back from the other wall.
Brian, Steve, and Lynn shivered in from the darkness, carrying green duffel bags. Brian held a red gasoline canister.
“How’d it go, honey?” Melissa said.
“Great,” Brian said. “Better than great.”
“There’s something in your hair,” Melissa said as she grabbed a leaf out of Brian’s black deadlocks. “Did you call the veterinarian?”
“No.”
“You promised.”
“I couldn’t get through. There’s no reception up here.”
“Use this phone.”
“You have to bury it Melissa. That thing stinks,” Brian said, referring to the odor of rotting flesh outside.
“No. We can save him.”
“I love that deer as much as you do honey, but what is, is,” Brian said, putting his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it away.
“Call.”
Brian picked up the old rotary phone and dialed. Someone picked up. He spoke. Walking away to the other side of the cabin, whispering so the others couldn’t hear he told the person he’d meet him at Fork’s Road at noon.
“It’s cool. I’m meeting him tomorrow,” he said as Melissa slid her hand into Brian’s back pocket.
Melissa, standing on her tiptoes, placing her hands on Brian’s shoulders pecked him on the cheek. The ring on her finger sparkled as pure as a virgin’s teardrop on prom night.
Love.
“I can’t believe those god damned loggers ran over the deer and just left him there to die in the cold. Fuckers. I swear to God, I hope they burn in hell,” Melissa said, grabbing a cloth, running it under the tap in the kitchen, and walking to the door. It slammed. A gust of cold wind blew into the room.
Melissa hesitated up to the dead dear, kneeled down, and wiped the blood off of his mouth. She rubbed her hand over the deer’s fur, staring at him. She took the rag and wiped her eyes. Bastards, she thought.
“Melissa. Get in here,” Brian said. He startled her.
Steve and Lynn sat mesmerized on the couch, gazing at the picture on the television.
“This just in the Vale Development Project has gone up in flames tonight. Suspected members of a terrorist group are believed to be responsible. Damage is said to be at least fifty million dollars. Police Officer Tad Bradley fired a shot during the attack. What he thought was a terrorist turned out to be an endangered Columbian White-tailed Deer. Poor little thing. We’ll get back to you when we learn more about this developing story,” the anchorman said.
Jumping up and cheering the four danced around the room.
“We did it,” Melissa said. “We did it. That’ll teach those dicks to rape the planet.”
Sitting down with crossed-legs and looking at everyone Melissa pulled a joint out of a rainbow striped change purse. She lit it. Sucking in the harsh smoke she inhaled as deep as she could and exhaled, passing the joint to Brian. She coughed. Melissa zoned in on the lines on the far side of the wall.
“Look everyone,” Melissa pointed. “The blue ink lines on the wall are where my dad marked my growth spurts. Awesome.”
Brian draped his arm over Melissa’s shoulder, squeezing her, smiling, staring into her brown eyes. Smoke danced around the bulb, hanging high on the ceiling, lighting the room languidly. Steve and Lynn staggered up and told Brian and Melissa they were going to bed.
“Goodnight guys,” Melissa said.
Melissa stared at Brian. He didn’t notice. She pulled him up and dragged him to the other room where she slept as a little girl.
The cabin, old and strong, smelled of smoke now and the feeling you receive only as a kid on Christmas morning saturated the place.
Melissa awoke the next morning and brewed a pot of coffee. The sky, cloudy and white, looked painted on the window. Shuffling through the drawers in the kitchen she found an old yoga journal she used when she was in high school.
“Might as well,” she said, noticing a police cruiser sitting outside of her cabin.
The wind whistled hard outside, causing the branches on the trees to scrape against the side of the house, emitting a noise reminiscent of long fingernails clawing their way down a blackboard.
Knock, knock, knock. “Hello, is anyone home?” the police officer said.
“Holy fuck,” Melissa whispered. “The police.” Brian, Steve, and Lynn crawled into the main room where Melissa stood like a statue. They pulled her down.
“What are we going to do?” Brian said.
“Don’t look at me,” Steve said. Lynn remained silent.
“We’re going to jail for so long. Fuck dude,” Steve whined.
“Stop it. We’re going to be fine. Stay cool man,” Brian said.
Melissa gazed out the window. The forest, thick with old trees and snow, was a forbidding place. She wondered how they could have found them? It seemed so simple. Go in at night … douse the wood with gasoline … strike the match … watch it burn … run … live, happily ever after. She glanced at the gasoline canister.
An idea lit up in her head. Would it work? Yes. Did she have a choice? No.
Knock, knock, knock. “Is anyone home?” the police officer said.
“What are you doing?” Brian said as Melissa stood up and walked towards the door.
“Answering it.”
“Don’t.”
Shaking she grabbed the door handle with sweaty palms. Her heart raced. She glanced over her shoulder at the others and closed her eyes. She opened it.
“Howdy miss,” The officer said, inhaling an odor through his nose, making him gag. “My name is Sheriff Jon Blamires. I was wondering if you saw anything out of the ordinary last night. Someone burned down Vale.”
“Oh my God. No. That’s horrible.”
“Is everything all right? You look a little flush. Do you smell something funky? That’s what brought me up here. Something died. Eww. Anyway I was poking around and saw this here cabin and wanted to ask if you saw anything. You here by yourself?”
“No. I’m with my fiancé Brian and our friends. We’re going snowboarding. I can’t believe some asshole burnt down Vale. I was so waiting for it. Killer snowboarding.”
“I bet it woulda’ been. I’m sorry to have bothered you. Good day miss. If you see anything call me.”
She shut the door. The others sighed. Outside the officer opened his car door and turned on the engine. He drove away down the hill.
“We have to get out of here,” Melissa said. “Now.”
“Why?” Brian said.
“He’ll be back. He knows what I look like.”
“Where we gonna go?”
“Far away from here. Far away from home.”
She languidly looked around the room, smiling. “I have to do something,” she said, stepping towards the door, grabbing a shovel, heaving it over her shoulder. Looking back at Brian she opened the door, letting in a blast of morning sunlight and a putrid whiff of winter air.
Melissa dug. She dug a hole right through the thick snow in the frozen ground. She dug for hours. She finished. Picking up the deer his stiff legs sticking down she rested him in the ground.
Brian came outside. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I know,” Melissa said, patting down the mound of dirt with her hands, burying the last remaining white-tailed deer. “Brian, do me a favor and grab the gasoline.”