Charlessmith - Tumblr Posts
OH. oh..
Tilly told her children that she was an outlaw, every night before they went to bed. In her own way.
They adored the tales of young, brave Matilda who ran with an infamous gang led by the notorious, charming Tacitus Kilgore. They pulled their blankets tightly around their shoulders and watched with widening eyes as their mother described wagon chases, the smell of a freshly shot pistol, the mud and the heat and the endless sky.
"But what happened to Tacitus, Mama? Where did he go?"
The same question, every night. Tilly would smile, and shake her head, and promise that the story was far from over. Be good, she'd say, and tomorrow you'll hear about how Tacitus and Matilda rustled a whole herd of cattle in the dead of night. Be good, be good, be dear, sweet boys.
The newspaper was a dagger in her gut. It pushed its way into her flesh, slowly, delightedly, as she continued to eat her eggs and toast and fresh strawberries from the garden. Her husband asked her if she was quite alright and she nodded too quickly, too desperately. He watched her for a time, before looking away and leaving her to whatever it was she couldn't tell him yet. She had told him plenty, but not all. He knew. He loved her evermore for it.
Tilly carried the newspaper with her all day, up and down the hallways and in and out of the nursery. She read it again and again, her teeth clenched, her knuckles white.
He was dead, finally dead. The man who raised her. The man she lost. The man she hated and loved and grieved for every time she saw a sunset. The man who first laid eyes on a terrified child and saw everything she could be.
Death had found him after all.
And if he couldn't outrun it, nobody could.
Tilly carefully cut on the article and placed it in the back of Leslie Dupont's first novel.
That night, her children sipped warm milk, like they always did. And Tilly stroked their heads, like she always did. And like they always did, they asked her what happened to Tacticus Kilgore.
"Another time, my loves. Not now, not yet."