Short and Long Stories Part 2

Bone Plants

There was once a farmer named Judas Spool, who was a lonely man with a rotten soul. This is the story of how his obsession devoured him.

Judas worked his beloved fields every day of his life. One day, while he had been busy working the land until the sun was but a shadow of a light, a fire had struck the small Spool home. And a fire was lit in the heart of Judas.

Molly, the youngest Spool daughter always loved helping her mother with supper for her daddy. However, like most evenings, her father was late that night. The dinner bell would ring from his wife's hands but he wouldn't come. Working his "precious fields" were more important to Judas. Focused on goals in his head and a family to provide for, his precious fields became his obsession, his life. The fields grew more and more abundantly as his family slowly faded from his vision.

Two nights before the flames took his family, Judas was in a raging uproar over his cold food for dinner. His wife tried explaining that the children needed to eat and if they waited for him the food would have gone cold for all of them. Mrs. Spool's comment didn't go over well with her tired, hungry, and angry husband. Judas wasn't sure if he was more hungry or tired from working in the heat of the sun all day and into the night. As his stomach ached for food, Judas thought it was only fair that his wife also spends the night with an ache. "I'll teach you to spoil my supper woman!" Judas barked and a solid slap was delivered to his wife's cheek.

"Please, not in front of the children," she begged. "just calm down." Her voice scratched with crying tears. But the pleas never help. Her other half had changed from the gentle loving man he once was. The obsession of his farmland had dirtied his heart with mud and soil.

On the night of the tragic fire, Judas was working the fields extra hard and with each drop of sweat falling from his forehead, dripping its way down his eyebrow before crashing to the dirt, his temper gained another degree of anger and rage. I'm just trying to work and provide for my family, what more do they want from me, he thought. Growling through clenched teeth, "A nice hot meal isn't asking much!" The plow turned over and over.

As darkness veiled the Spool home, Molly decided she would start dinner. Molly stood three feet tall on tippy toes and lighting the stove without her mother's help wasn't easy. But she was determined to help her mommy and make her dad happy with dinner. She struck the match to life and stretched the small ember to the stovetop. She strained to light the fire and the match slipped from her tiny fingers and landed into the sleeve of her pretty blue striped dress and caught fire. The little girl panicked, thrashing her arms and knocking over a pot of black oily grease and drenching her dress. She tripped over the pot and knocked the corner of her head on the edge of the counter. Her burning sleeve and oil combined and the fire began to spread quickly. The crackling of a raging fire erased Molly's screams. Her mother and two sisters became trapped in the scorching flames while trying to save her. Judas was too busy and focused on his precious fields that night. His family was cooked to ashes and he was left alone with his fields.

Sometime after the accident, Judas built himself a small cabin closer to his fields. A working man like him only saw fit to make use out of the land he owned and after the fire; he plowed down the remains of the old house. After it was plowed he set the crop and readied the land for harvest. But the soil where Judas's family burned to death remained barren.

The small amount of grief that Judas might have had turned into anger and the memories of his family faded and were replaced with his precious fields. He made an excuse to use his work to forget the painful memories of his neglected family. Those sweet heartfelt memories of his family were now buried with their burnt bones in the soil. Judas became worse than ever.

After the work became routine Judas realized he was missing something. Every day after his work on the fields he came home to nothing. Eventually, he remarried a saloon dancer. Trixie Dale was a young handsome gal, Judas thought. But he also thought she was uneducated, dumb, and a brainless tramp. But she could cook a decent meal and satisfy his other needs. He wasn't looking to raise a family now. After a good hard day's worth of work, he wanted to all liquored up. Trixie grew up without a daddy so she tried to replace that empty hole with an older man like Judas. But there was no end to his rage. Judas would drink and then he would punish her.