PEEL-BEHIND THEIR EYES. Book 1 (Complete)

Chapter 16. Jealousy

The morning sun was low in the sky its crisp bright light making short work of burning away the early morning mist that shrouded the surrounding streets of the Eastmarsh dock area of Grimsby. Car driver's battle against the reflecting glare that bounced up off of the damp tarmac, but even the night's drizzle was giving way to the winter sun's blaze.

As Richard Barringer cranked open the roller shutters that hid away the large glass windows either side of the funeral homes main entrance, he winced as the light shining back at him off of the glass blinded him. The shutters fully up, Richard took a moment to check his own reflection, the dapper suit he wore was a size too big, the cuffs frayed and the style a decade or two to old, but all in all he looked 'smart for the part' as his dad used to say, it had been his father's suit after all, not his best, they had buried him in that one. Richard's mother had promised that she would buy him a suit of his own, but that had been three years ago just after his father tragic trip and fall down the stairs.

Richard checked his reflection again and whispered to himself "the bitch lied, I'm still wearing dad's hand-me-down". Stepping back inside the building he busied himself dusting and polishing the display headstones and caskets as he waited for a customer to walk in off the street searching for a sympathetic ear that would listen about their loss, an ear that would help plan their loved ones last moment on this Godly earth. Richard had a warm ear alright and would happily listen to their griping Shit all day if it helped loosen their purse strings. He had a couple of hours to waste until the 10 o'clock showing.

Looking to the back of the showroom Richard watched as the black pointed minute hand of the large Roman clock ticked loudly to the next minute marker, and thought "just a couple of hours to wait". He remembered grandfather Aigarth 'Pops' telling him that he had placed that clock their nigh on fifty years ago. He had told the young Richard that many years earlier he had been a ticket inspector for British railway, and that one day as he arrived for work with his lunch box tucked under his arm, ready to board the 630am train to Doncaster, he had found builders ripping out the ticket office and waiting room's walnut paneling and counter-tops and throwing them out, all to be replaced by a more modern and supposedly more stylish teak finish. Shaking his head indignantly he had turned on his heels, tucked his lunch back under his arm and left, grabbing the old clock as he passed the rubbish heap. He hated having the history of Grimsby ripped out from beneath him and this had been the last straw. Within a week he had secured a loan from the bank and soon after Aigarth funeral home was open for business. Richard smiled, the clock was the only thing he had to remind him of the one person he had ever loved in this God forsaken family.

Thinking of those he hated upstairs, Richard snarled in contempt, "Grandfather Barringer for starters makes me sick; he's a lecherous old man who could no longer talk properly after having his tongue partially cut out by my grandmother's murder and my own mother's torture".

Richard's mother said that grandfather had been a good and decent man before that unfortunate day, but that too many of his screws had been loosened and now he was just a shell of his former self, "Yeah" Richard thought "a strange creepy shell that scared me as a kid. And the way his eyes followed Sam around was perverse"

"Then there is my wonderfully mean mother, a bitter woman who has spent the last 38 years of her life blaming everyone, especially me and Sam, for the atrocious things that happened to her all those years ago. How we have suffered for her pain"

"And finally there's dear Samantha, my self-centered whore of a sister, who has slept with just about every man that has entered her life". Richard hated her ever since she caught him standing over her one night as she slept, he knew that she had let him finish before she had laughed at him and chased him from her room calling him a little perve. She had never let him forget, she would walk around in front of him wearing nothing but her underwear, teasing him. Richard hated himself for wanting her, he knew it was wrong but he could help it, he knew what he wanted was illegal, but he wanted her all the same. Richard hated his entire family, if they all up and died he wouldn't shed a tear, all he needed was his grandfather's funeral home and the clock above his head and he'd be happy.

"Yeah, if they all just died"

Smiling at the possibility, Richard popped into the kitchen in the back and flicked on the kettle and cracked open the packet of biscuits. As he washed clean a cup, Richard inspected the face staring back at him in the mirror above the sink, his short dark hair now had a sprinkling of gray running through it and there were now crow's feet developing at the corners of his eyes, he felt a lot old than his 32 years. The good news though was that his eyes were as bright as ever, moving closer to the mirror he studied them more intently and thought "they are just the same as Sam's, just the same as mothers in her childhood photos, the ones she forces us to look at on Sundays"

The mournful sound of the entrance bell rang as the foyer door opened; still too early for his 10 o'clock booking Richard guessed it to be the first customer of the day. Leaving behind his freshly brewed cup of tea he smoothed down his suit, stood up straight and placed a believably sympathetic smile on his face. Walking into the foyer confidently he began to say before seeing his prospective customer "welcome to Aigarth's, how may I be of ass......." but as he rounded the corner into the room, he stopped short, his shoulders fell with disappointment and a mist of resentment clouded his eyes, "Oh it's you" he spat. Sam let the entrance door clatter shut behind her and strutted across the carpeted floor in the clothes Richard had seen her leave in the night before. He couldn't help but call after her with disdain.

"I saw you with that copper last night, I bet you fucked him, you dirty little stop out"

Samantha stopped at the foot of the stairs and turning toward her brother, who she loathed as much as he loathed her, and raising a hand slowly up her body from her waist to her breast, and cupping it she squeezed hard, moaning sexually "Oh Richie, you're just jealous that somebody else got to play with Sammy and not you". Seeing her brother's eyes follow her every move she turned her back to him and climbed the stairs. At the top, she shouted down "Pervert" and laughed.

His face red with a mixture of rage, humiliation and above all, just as she had said, jealousy, Richard watched her disappear up the stairs before returning to his cup of tea. Standing with both hands clamped on the worktop next to the sink, his knuckles white, he could hear through the water pipes that Sam was running a bath "Washing that bastard's touch off of her skin I hope". The conflict he felt inside was almost unbearable, he hated his sister with a passion, but that passion wanted her far more.

Taking a sip of his tea Richard heard the foyer bell toll again and with a sigh, he brushed down his suit, straightened his hunched back and with a false calmness went to greet the first customer of the day "Welcome to Aigarth's, how may I be of assistance"

Stepping past the stairs with his hand outstretched towards the young sad looking couple, Richard could hear the tone deaf grating voice of his grandfather from above singing his mother's special rhyme, the one that he only ever sang on particularly bad days.

"Oh Shit, mothers upset again" he knew that the only thing that would soothe her was grandfather singing about catching that bloody fish.

One...Two...Three four five, once I caught a fish alive

Six...Seven...Eight nine ten, Then I put it back again

Cringing at the sound Richard squeezed the young man's hand a little too tightly, but thought "what the hell, you're still here to bury your baby I'm guessing, and you're too distracted to be annoyed by a little more pain than you are both already in"

Smiling sympathetically Richard said "please take a seat"

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