Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus by Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus by Vanessa Leigh Giles

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part
‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor. Hello. “How’s my wife feeling?”, I replied and asked. Biting my wafer-thin chapped lips. “Well, your wife, Linda. I regret to inform you that she has passed away. I am very sorry. My sincere condolences. If you need grief counseling, call back this number and press number 7. Take care sir and hope you overcome this terrible loss”, Dr. Smith had told me.

 “My goodness.”  My poor beloved, Linda.”, I moaned solemnly and shivered, causing me to have dropped my gray apple phone. It disconnected instantly. My green eyes had become glossy and greener than ever before. “My beloved Linda was gone. She’s gone forever. The love of my life. I’m going to miss her so much.”, I thought and whimpered.  She died from that terribly malicious and contagious new powerful virus called Corona. Having thought of the name of that vile virus made me almost want to have bought the popular Corona beers I often saw being promoted on ads to drink and drown my sorrows away all day on Miami Beach. “Life’s a beach!”, I screeched furiously like a mad man. My last fond and foul memory of her had burned vividly in my mind.  I had seen her when she was admitted to the hospital before leaving. l had kissed her amorously goodbye on her once soft, smooth, and golden beige palm of her hand. Which had become a harsh texture and faint beige color, due to that nasty illness she had caught.

The very next week I attended my beloved lovely Linda’s funeral. It was rather grubby and subdued inside the quaint chapel. Though, there was a glimmer of light that had come from a small ornate windowpane above. And, that glimmer of light laid brightly upon the head of a radiant lady, like a halo seen floating above the head of an angel. I was deeply mesmerized by her, and she looked very familiar. She looked just like my beloved Linda. “Hey, you’re alive my love! My angel! Linda, Linda!”, I shouted, while I swiftly moved towards her and grabbed her silky-smooth shoulder. Then, I said, “I am so glad you are alive and well my lovely Linda.”. While I tried to embrace her. “Pardon me”, she said. As she had moved away “No, I am not Linda. I’m her half-sister, Lea”, she replied perplexingly, chuckled, and wrinkled her forehead. 

“Hello, nice to meet you Lea. My name is John.”, I said. I felt embarrassed and blushed uncontrollably. “Nice to meet you too.”, she said. “Wow! You look just like my beloved Linda. Especially, your enigmatic wide smile is just like hers. I miss her so much.”, I said. “Yes, she was wonderful. America’s sweetheart. She had been a very benevolent, bright, and stunning lady. We grew up together at our mother’s lovely lake home in Land O’ Lakes, Florida”, Lea said. “Yes, she was”, I had said. As I smiled hazily and had slicked back my golden curly brown hair. 

Chapter 2 The Unexpected Visitor
We had gotten to know each other and became close friends. Eventually, we became great lovers. Soon after, I proposed to her. Only a few months later she moved in with me at my lofty apartment in Melbourne, Florida. One chilly night, while my wife was away on a business trip shortly before the holidays, as I was sleeping soundly in my cozy cotton sheeted bed, I heard what sounded like a faint whisper. “Don’t do it. Don’t.”, whispered an unknown mournful sound, which I thought may have been a voice uttered in a low raspy tone. “What?”, I muttered, blinking profusely. “Oh, it was just the wind causing all this commotion. I muttered to myself nervously. Then, a slightly crumpled gray business card that read ‘Kat’s Gentlemen’s Club in Tampa, FL and the contact info.’ fell on my lap. “Why would my wife go to a gentlemen’s club? Maybe, her friend had a bachelorette party there recently.” I thought. I immediately shrugged it off. “Don’t mar, marry her.” The voice whispered again, melancholily. Shortly after, I was startled again by the eerie whispering elegiac sound, I awoke and fell very sharply and swiftly to the hard wooden floor. It almost sounded as loud as a gun that had been shot nearby. “What the hell?!”, I yelled. I straightened my long legs and stood up quickly. Looking at all the surroundings in my bedroom. I had seen no one. “Was I just dreaming?”, I had asked myself.

Then, I sighed and took a few long deep breaths to calm myself and I went back to bed. Thinking about what I may have heard. And, then thinking of my beloved Lea that I had fallen in love with. All the great qualities she had. I could not find any negative traits that described her. Though, she can be secretive, but scarcely. Since she had a few times whenever I had asked her about her close amiable bonds from the past, she seemed hesitant to talk about it. She would change the subject quickly.  I had become pensive, and my palms began to sweat. It had taken me several hours to go back soundly asleep that night.

The next week, I went downstairs to my basement and the lock to my chest box in my drab basement looked like it had been pried open. As I opened it, I noticed the rope, tape and my handgun were missing. And suddenly the music box nearby started playing a classic rock song sung by the rock band, Guns & Roses called, “Don’t Cry”. “Hey, who turned that on? Is that you Lea? Are you back home from your business trip early? I asked anxiously. I had started breathing heavily out of my bearded salt and pepper colored goatee mouth. “I must be very exhausted from working so hard today. I need to take it easy.”, I muttered to myself.  And, then I hurriedly left my basement and went outside to my grand, lush patio-garden to relax, rejuvenate, and reflect from a hard day’s work.

Then, on the last day of the weekend after I had finished walking my frenzied sleek black terrier dog, Tangy, at the park near my home on a scolding, hot, humid summer day. So, I went back inside my home, I took off the leash from my exhausted dog and took off my maroon, yellow sun hat from my sweaty-sticky head.  Afterwards, I turned on the tea kettle to boil some water to make my favorite drink, peach iced tea.  While waiting, I went into my office-den upstairs to read my enchanting novel called, “Gone with the Wind” on my comfy love-sofa. Shockingly, a vast amount of smoke from my tea kettle on the stainless-steel stove consumed my home quickly.  The smoke alarm did not go off, so I was not aware of it for a while, until the smell of the smoke reached me in my small office-den upstairs. I ran hurriedly down the hall and stairs to my kitchen to turn off the tea kettle. Then, I intensely felt a sensation of the smoke caressing my tense body. Especially rubbing against the back of my shoulders and neck. Then, I felt the smoke inscribe the word “Don’t” on my long, lean neck, like a taboo tattoo being put on with a sharp needle on my soft skin. Chills ran down me. “Get off, go away!”, I screamed nervously. Then, I very hurriedly opened all the windows and doors in the kitchen to let out that irritating scent and feeling of the dense smoke from my home. It helped. Suddenly a notion came to me, like a lightbulb. “Aha!”, I shrieked. My beloved Linda came back as a spirit and left me signs to warn me that someone soon was planning to murder me.” Hell!”, I roared.  Who would have wanted me dead? I didn’t have any enemies. I felt I needed to call the cops. Then, I realized that they would never have believed me that a ghost came to my home to warn me that I would be murdered soon. “Hah! “, I hollered. I would have been the laughingstock of the city I lived in, here in Melbourne, Florida. I had to rely on myself. I was planning to prepare myself soon for the worst to happen by thinking of ways to ward off this unknown sinister soul. I had thought pensively, while stretching my long, slender neck like a swan toward the heavens above.

Chapter 3 The Uninvited Guest
‘Chirp, Chirp!’ My benevolent birds were chirping cheerfully to the bright blue sky. The sound of them woke me up very early in the morning. At sunrise. I looked outside my window. And I noticed that the flowers in the garden had bloomed vibrantly. Also, the grass and plants were piercing green and lush. It looked like an oasis. “Spring has come finally!”, I said gleefully.  Then, I went to feed my benevolent birds that were gleefully chirping in my patio-garden, and I felt something pointed at the back of my head. 

“Is that you, my Linda?” I asked. “Put your hands up”, he demanded. “What? Okay “, I said nervously. It was not the spirit of Linda. It was a gun pointed at the back of my head and the person that came to murder me”, I shockingly thought. He tied up my arms and legs and taped my mouth up. Then, he made a noose and hung it on the tree branch nearby. He turned me around. I saw that he was a tall man in a gray overcoat and wore a shiny earring on his left ear. Then, he plopped me on the patio table chair and rang the noose around my neck. He kicked off the chair I was standing on and left me alone there. I was gasping for breath. Immediately, I reached for the knife I had hidden under my belt on my pants where I made a small socket to hold and hide my weapon.  I pulled it out. Then, with it I quickly and carefully cut off the rope from my neck. Next, I swiftly ran up to the man who tried to kill me and pushed him to the brown cobbled-stone garden path. We fought and the gun went off.  ‘Bam!’ I got hold of the gun. “I’m on to you. How much did she pay you?” I asked. While I held the gun tightly and closely towards the temple of his sweaty forehead. He looked surprised. “You know, how?”

“Let’s just say a little birdy told me.”, I replied. I was about to call the police when he pulled the rug from beneath me. I fell and dropped the gun in the rose bushes. He went to the bushes to look for the gun, but I got up and pushed him to the ground. I went towards the bushes, found the gun, turned around and shot him right in the heart as he was running towards me and about to overtake me. ‘Bam! Bam!’ His heavy body fell on the pasture, and he bled pretty much plenty from his large chest. A few minutes later, he breathed his last breath. He was gone. Lea never came back from her business trip. She disappeared. She must have found out from the news what had happened to me.  For a long time, the police tried to track her down and find her, but they still have not caught her. Perhaps, she escaped to another country or took a false identity. She still has now been for many years on America’s most wanted list.

* * * *The End * * * * *
Copyright Vanessa Leigh Giles 2024