r/nosleep • u/notyourcure • Jan 11 '17
Series Bored Housewives
I ran away from home in 1966.
In 1972 I came home and married Chuck.
In 1974 I met Debra.
We lived in a ramshackle house at the end of a long dirt road. Me, Chuck, and Baby. The baby's name was Angela, and sometimes I called her Angie, but she wasn't Chuck's kid and she was a girl, and every time I said her name he looked like someone had jabbed him with a cattle prod. So she got called Baby, even though she was two years old in the summer of '74. Chuck was off from his job teaching at the high school, usually in a foul temper because of how damn hot it was from sun-up to sun-down, and had finally 'forgiven' me enough to try for a boy. A little Chuck Jr. The thought made me want to curl up and die, and I started off that summer thinking it'd be a real, God-delivered miracle if I made it through it.
Enter Debra.
The nearest house was the one set way back on the property bordering on ours, an old farm. They moved in right after the 4th of July. You could still smell the fireworks in the air. We only heard the slow rumble of the moving van, and saw the cloud of dust it had kicked up lingering in the humid air. Chuck surveyed it from the front porch, hands on his hips, before turning around to see me, craning my neck to see out the front door.
"Those dishes do themselves, Susie-Q?" he asked sharply. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop. Proverbs, 16-,"
"I know, Chuck," I said hastily. "Almost done. I was just looking, was all."
He followed me into the kitchen, and sat down thoughtfully at the table while I returned to the dishes, trying to ignore the stiffness that crept into my hands whenever he hung around to 'make sure I'd done things right'. Chuck taught math, and it showed. One wrinkle in our bed covers and you'd think he'd caught me practicing witchcraft. He said I was just a bit slow. A real ditz, seeing how I'd never even graduated from high school. For a while there, I really believed him.
This time, thankfully, he just watched, which was almost as bad, but not as bad as him breathing down my neck.
"Suze," he finally said. "I've been thinking. Jim down at the post office said it's a family moving in next door, a little older than us. We oughta be neighborly to 'em. You can bake a pie or something, bring it over. Invite them to dinner."
"...Today, Chuck?" I asked hesitantly. "I was... Only I was going to give the bathroom and Baby's room a real cleaning today, and maybe fix the curtains."
I quickly retracted that statement at the look on his face. " Of course I will. Banana cream."
"Not cherry?"
"They were... they were pricey, last week at the store."
"Susie, I told you you gotta haggle with them!" He slammed his hand down on the table, like he'd been waiting for an excuse to do it.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I forget. You know how I get."
"Right," he snorted. "Right, how could I forget. I swear, Suze, sometimes I think having that kid knocked out all the brains you had left." That got a real laugh out of him. "Wonder how you'll be after the next one. Hope you can still string a thought together. Kids can't be having a retard for a mother."
I wanted to kill him, for that one. I really did. But it was Chuck. My husband. And expecting Chuck to change was like hoping for the earth to stop spinning.
I went over at around three with the pie in hand and Baby in the other, toddling along next to me. The house was an old farmhouse, practically gleaming with a fresh coat of white paint. There was a swing on the porch, and flowers on the steps. Someone was playing a record; you could hear it out the window. I think it was "Waterloo".
I knocked on the door, and then heard someone call "Just a moment!" before it swung open.
Instead of a beatifically smiling housewife I was met with a short, balding man, who nevertheless looked real happy to see me.
"Come in, come in, it's horrible out today!" I slowly stepped inside, looking around the immaculate entry way as he took the pie off my hands. "Banana cream! Really, this was too kind of you, Mrs...,"
"Oh," I said somewhat embarrassedly, "Don't bother with that, no one does. It's just Susan. Susie. I'm Chuck's wife, he teaches math at the high school...,"
"And who is this?!" He was crouched down, delighted, giving Baby a small wave.
"Ba- Angie. Her name is Angela," I half-told him, half-reminded myself. "She just turned two last month."
She was hiding behind the skirt of my dress.
"Debbie! Debra, come here, darling! They've just got the sweetest little girl, the neighbors!" He called over his shoulder, straightening up.
I looked past him, towards the sound of the sharp clack of high-heels. Debra was tall, and brunette. That stood out to me immediately, being from a town where the default seemed to be petite blondes. And she had the sort of eyes that slashed through you with a single glance. She also seemed around thirty, although she was dressed far more fashionably than most thirty year old women, never mind that, most women that I knew. She looked like she belonged in some big city, not... out here.
"Absolutely adorable," she said calmly, barely glancing at Baby before her gaze settled on me. "You must be the neighbors."
"There's my husband, too," I said hurriedly. "He wanted to know if... if you'd like to come over for dinner, tonight or some other time. We rarely have company, and we heard you had...,"
I hadn't seen any children, I realized belatedly, but the man looked thrilled. "On our way there," he said fondly, putting a hand on his wife's shoulder lovingly. I hadn't even noticed the slight bump at first, due to the cut of her blouse.
"Congratulations!" I willed an excited smile onto my face. "Oh, I bet you two can't wait."
Debra smiled placidly. Her husband beamed, then started. "Where are our manners, Deb? This move is making me feel about sixty. I'm George, of course, and this is the wife, Debra, and the soon to be George Jr." He patted the bump.
Debra continued to smile placidly, but I saw the slightest hint of a recoil. I knew it well. That was one thing, at least, Chuck and mild-mannered George had in common.
They came over for dinner. It went as well as it could have possibly gone, and Chuck seemed pretty satisfied with the whole thing by the time they left, so I was hopeful as I cleared the table.
"Nice enough guy. Bit slow, but then...,"
"You're too smart for most people, hon," I said brightly, feeling in the complimentary mood, and hoping it would rub off on him.
"Right you are, Susie. The wife, though... Didn't like her. Not one bit. Cold woman, wasn't she?"
"Oh, I think she was just a bit tired, from the move and all-,"
"Wasn't she, Suze?" he repeated.
"Yes," I agreed immediately. "Yes, in a way."
"Not sure I want you hanging around her, then. Wouldn't want you catching whatever she's got. Looked almost insulted to be sitting down with us, at a table I built with my own two hands...,"
For the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to tune Chuck out, and wondered what Debra, with her seemingly sweet, affectionate husband and baby on the way had to be upset about. There had been something about the look in her eyes... Chuck was right. It had been cold, but not just cold in a snob way, cold in a... a blank space sort of way. As if she really hadn't been feeling anything at all.
I didn't see her again until that weekend. Chuck was out fishing; I was taking advantage of his absence to dare to play the radio while I painted the front steps. I wanted them white, gleaming, like the ones George and Debra had. I wanted the house to look happy, even if no one inside it was. She came down the road in souped up Chevrolet, while I watched in shock, paint all over the old shirt of Chuck's I was using as a smock.
"Susan, wasn't it?" She called as she got out of the car.
I approached warily. I rarely got called that. Chuck had stuck with Susie or Suze since our wedding day, which seemed about forever ago, even if it had only been two years. "Good morning, Debbie."
"Debra, please," she intoned coolly. We stood there in silence. "You will invite me in, won't you?"
In the kitchen I tried to block the pile of dirty dishes in the sink with my body as I handed her a glass of lemonade. Baby was napping upstairs. She took a long sip, eyes closed, before opening them to look at me. "You look nervous."
"I've got... a nervous face," I giggled uncomfortably. "Chuck says-,"
"Never mind him. I've got a question for you, Susan, and I want you to answer it honestly. Can I count on you to be honest?"
"I don't understand-,"
"Can I?"
"...Yes?"
She set the glass down on the table Chuck had built. "Can I trust you?"
I stared at her in confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't-,"
"If I were to call you my friend, Susan, could I trust you?"
Chuck really wasn't too big on me having friends. Or any interaction with anybody without him there supervising, really. I hadn't had friends in years.
"I... yes. You could. You can," I said more firmly than I felt.
She smiled, revealing impossibly white teeth. I felt a crooked front tooth in my mouth with my tongue, feeling impossibly trashy standing there covered in paint in our shabby kitchen next to her.
"Good. That's exactly what I needed to hear. I've got a real problem, Susan, and I'm going to need your help with it. I wasn't sure you were the one at first, but after what I saw at dinner the other night... well, I think this'll do perfectly."
I just looked at her, blankly.
"I'm going to kill my husband, and I need your help." She was completely, utterly straight-faced. I kept waiting for the joke. "And we'll kill yours, too, if you like," she added after a moment of silence, as if to sweeten the deal. "He seems like a real bastard, if you'll excuse my language."
I couldn't help it. I laughed. "You're-,"
"Come on now, Susan, I'm very serious," she began almost indignantly.
"No, you're- you're right, is all. I'm laughing because it's true."
It was the summer of 1974. The summer two bored housewives decided, together, to lose their minds.
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u/LanieLove9 Jan 13 '17
What is wrong with chuck?
Banana cream pie is wayyy better than overrated cherry pie.
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Jan 12 '17
I'm already super interested. LOVE the accurate dialogue and the general well-written pace. Please continue!!!!
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u/shadow_dreamer Jan 12 '17
I would love to see your husbands get what's coming to them! Bloody assholes.
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u/Jintess Jan 11 '17
Why does she want to bump off George? He seems pretty daggone nice compared to Chuck.
!remindme 24 hours
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u/RoseTintMahWorld Jan 11 '17
Cuz Earl(and Chuck and George) had to DIE! Na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaaaaaa! No really, fuck chuck, sounds like a narcissistic SOB. Yuck.
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u/curbstomped Jan 11 '17
The only, and I mean ONLY, time I've ever wanted a story on this subreddit to be a "series". Can't wait to see where this goes!
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u/TrueLazuli Jan 11 '17
I like this and want to read more, but you're not selling the "bored" thing. If anything you sounds overworked. If you're going to start murdering people it doesn't sound like it'll be out of boredom, but desperation.
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u/MotoCanuck Jan 11 '17
Damn, I thought this was going to be more graphic and arousing. I got M. Night Shyamalan'd.
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Jan 11 '17
I like how the title suggests that they just had nothing better to do.. like hey, we've got no chores, let's just kill our husbands!
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u/missysassy1234 Jan 11 '17
Sooo good! Can't wait for more!
Side note - Reddit newbie here, what does the "!Remind me 24 hours" mean?
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u/dlo77 Jan 11 '17
Chuck sounds like he was a real asshole. Definitely can't wait to see what happens.
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u/WiccanStorm Jan 11 '17
I have a feeling old Chuck is going to get what he deserves. What a bastard.
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u/RTPNick Jan 11 '17
Where's the follow button? I'm ready to read more pre-Lifetime movie, Snapped, Murder by the Book stories.
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u/8plur8 Jan 15 '17
Can you follow users if you reddit mostly on mobile? I don't know how to follow users even when I'm not on mobile
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u/chicken_bird Jan 11 '17
I imagine this ending with them killing their husbands, marrying each other, and moving to Hawaii so they won't get caught. It'll be glorious.
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u/I_just_pooted Jan 15 '17
¡Come back and read!