By George Woodruff

Part 7

Rita Henderson was just a little confused by the situation to be honest. She arrived at the Stevenson residence to find and agitated mother trying to calm equally agitated children, a fair sized family dog overly concerned and Susan Weathers sitting serenely amid all the noise and confusion.

"Would someone like to tell me what is going on here?" Rita asked.

"Well Detective, as near as I can figure it out, while I was sleeping either someone came in here and got a face full of my knee, or someone is playing a very mean practical joke, or failing that, I managed to bloody my knee in my sleep without breaking the skin." And she showed Rita her knee. There was definitely an impact there, but no puncture, she then looked at the soiled tissue and realise that even seepage would have been apparent from the amount of blood collected there. She considered the implications, and after a short interview with Karen, she recommended that they go out for a walk or to the mall. Karen looked wistfully at her sister, who nodded, giving her permission to leave her with the police, and then she took the kids and practically fled from the house. The forensics team made a cursory exploration of Susan's room and found nothing, searching the rest of the house, the only prints that they found not already accounted for were a male's on a mug, which Susan recognised as Jack's favourite, the buxom wench that served as the handle was definitely not her sister's taste. The fact that Jack hadn't taken it, meant that Karen had probably hidden it on him. The fact that it was found hiding in the back of her porcelain cupboard only added weight to the idea. After the team had completed a more exhaustive search and reported back to Henderson, she in turn spoke with Susan.

"I confess that I am at a loss to explain what happened here. We'll take the blood down to the lab and run it through the tests but as far as we can tell, no one has been in here, and if they have, they have gone to great lengths to hide it. Maybe the sample," she indicated the blood stained tissue in the baggie, "will shed some light on this. Until then, I don't know what to say. Did you want a lift to the Mall to find your sister?"

"Yes thank you, that would be very nice." Susan got up and followed the police out to their cars. She locked up the house and climbed in beside the detective. While the rest of the officers headed back to the station, she and Rita went over to the mall.

Karen was still rather wild eyed when they found her in the food court, presiding over an ice cream feast for the kids. She didn't look that relieved to hear that no one had been in her home. She did seem relieved though to hear that she and her children could go back. Buster, the dog seemed relaxed and sociable as per usual when they got home. The rest of the day passed quietly until Jack came over.

The kids were out back in the yard, playing with Buster, Karen and Susan were discussing her dream and its implications and the significance of the blood that was on her knee when she woke up. The door opened, causing Karen to give a little yelp. Susan turned and glared at the interruption. Jack walked in, all arrogance and belligerence. He saw his busty mug and Susan sensed something snap inside him.

"I knew you had it you bitch!" he bellowed and charged across the house at Karen, Susan leapt into his path and blocked his descending fist with an open palm and countered with a pivot kick. Her knee connected with the soft tissue under his ribs and the air was forced out of him. He crashed gasping for air into the table, scalding himself with the coffee in the carafe that was sitting there. The shock of the burn forced his system to suck air into his lungs but before he could scream in pain, Susan was on him again, this time from behind, her left hand buried in his scalp, a death grip on his follicles, her right hand clutching his throat, her nails digging into his taut flesh.

"Back up and out of here you lousy sack of shit Jack or I swear by the moons of Lycos I'll rend you open and eat your heart before your very eyes!" she growled. Jack, normally a bellicose and pugilistic tough guy, heard something in her growling voice that made him loose is bowels and bladder and flee screaming. Karen sat crouched in the corner cowering through all of this, her eyes fixed upon the tableau. Susan rode her brother-in-law's back until he reached the front door and then let go, allowing him to flee screaming into the street without further harm. As he climbed into his car and roared away in a cacophony of squealing tires and grinding gears, she licked the fingers of her right hand, the salty coppery taste exciting her.

"Susan!" Karen finally screamed.

"What?" she responded nonchalantly.

"What are you doing?" Karen was near hysterics again.

"Cleaning myself, why?" Susan said distractedly, and then noticed what she was actually doing. She was licking Jack's blood from her fingers, as one would after eating southern fried chicken. Two thoughts occurred to her at once. Tasty, and what the hell is going on here. Despite the urge to finish licking her fingers clean, she went to the kitchen and washed the remaining blood off her hands. Then noticing her sister still staring at her in shock she started to lose her temper.

"What?" she demanded.

"What's happening to you?" Karen asked.

"What do you mean?" Susan snapped.

"I've never seen you like this before. I've never seen you do that before."

"What?" Susan saw that her sister was trying to get a handle on this. She started to clean up, hoping that that attempt at normalcy would help. Karen watched her, as a cat would something new and potentially threatening. After a few moments she joined in, they righted the table, cleaned up the spilt coffee. Susan stopped to watch the kids playing at one point. Buster looked at her specifically and seemed to wink at her, but she dismissed that as a trick of the sun or something. She could sense Karen's unease and wished that she would just relax. Really relax. There was a crush behind her as Karen collapsed on the floor. Susan rushed to her side and found Karen giggling.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, I just feel so relaxed, I guess my body is responding to all this stress by taking a vacation, and frankly, I like it. In fact, I feel like I could use a vacation." She looked at Susan and a smile lit her face. "Would you mind if the kids and I just took off at the end of the school year?"

"What, you mean, would I mind staying here, house sitting and taking care of Buster?" Susan asked intuitively.

"Yes, exactly, that's it. Man it's like you can read my mind." She laughed, and as Susan helped her up to her chair, she giggled again as her sister's hands inadvertently brushed her breasts. "Sue... I didn't think you were into that!" Susan was startled by the statement and almost dropped her sister when she realised what she meant.

"Karen! My word, what has gotten into you? I think you need to lie down for a bit."

"Are you going to tuck me in?" Karen laughed. Susan watched her sister climb unsteadily to her feet and when she almost toppled over, she rushed to her side and helped her to the living room and lay her down on the chesterfield. She got a blanket out of the linen closet and covered her drowsing sister. She watched her for a moment, and then left to go look at the kids again. They were still playing with Buster. She went back into the kitchen and finished cleaning up the mess from Jack's little rampage.

As she finished, she looked up and noticed the calendar. She went over and had a good look at it. It was already mid-June, and the kids would be out of school in a couple of weeks. Without a thought she reached for the telephone, her hand picking it up as it rang.

"Hello?" she said, still scrutinising the calendar. "Oh hello Steven, yeah, I am looking forward to this weekend, in fact, I'd like to go dancing after all. What do you think? Sure, I'll pick... no wait, my car is still in my parking space at my apartment, do you mind picking me up after supper and driving me down to my place so I can get it? No? Thank you Steven, I really appreciate that."

They chatted for a little bit, and Steven had to go. She went and made an early supper and called the kids in to eat. Karen woke to the sound of the kids and the dog gambolling into the house. She sat up and staggered still sleepy eyed into the kitchen.

"How'd you sleep sis?" Susan asked. "Have any dreams about where you and the kids are going to go for your vacation?" Brian and Jessica exploded into squeals of delight. Karen tried to look cross with her sister but the exuberance of her children, and the wonderful way she felt overpowered the feeling and she smiled.

"Actually, yes, I have this desire to go and visit the Maritimes, I've always wanted to, and now, this year, I think I will. Are you sure you don't mind watching Buster for us while we gallivant around the Maritimes?" she responded.

"No, the only thing I'll mind is if you ask me that again." Susan laughed. They sat down and had a pleasant dinner together and Steven arrived just in time to whisk Susan away before the clearing up occurred, not that she would have to.