Horrible Harvest

I fount my way to the kitchen. The stamp-sized area was near packed to the rafters with Bobby and his gang – Or firm as he preferred to call us. We et without saying a word at first, but the silence felt sinister. Soon enough, small talk bounced from one fella to the next. Not a word was spoke on Rusty. The men who’d called him a friend and brother appeared not to give much of care about him as they stuffed their guts with fatted-meat stew. They’d lived through a war, and they’d seen it break the world apart. Crushing cruelty took bites out of every last one of them. They’d come to expect things to leave this place in the ugliest ways possible. They weren’t thrown by Rusty’s death. Not for long, anyhow. Hell, they’d most likely expected it. Terrifying as it sounds, there was a better than good chance they found comfort in his violent passing because it was familiar to them.

I was pleased to see Virginia smile during dinner. I can’t recall having seen her manage so much as a grin nor even a smirk up ‘til then. I realized that it was the presence of the wife Bishop that produced such joy for the child. She craved her a protector – Not one such as me nor Felix – Fellas that carried guns and fought the demons of this world with guile and fury. She wanted her one that shielded her with love and tenderness. I couldn’t never be that. Felix couldn’t never neither. No man among us could manage something so – Human. Had I not been so focused on undoing the life I’d lived, I’ld’ve left her with the wife Bishop to raise, but it was clear to me that Virginia was part of my salvation, and I couldn’t allow a selfless act to derail saving myself from becoming the men who raised me.

Darren and the others, without a moan nor complaint, begun to respond to me as if they held me in high regard. My touch of madness had calmed them. It was as if they found in me a conductor who took ownership of their own notes of rage. I guided their wrath and give timing and direction for their own lunacy. They’d come to unleash it and corral it on my command. From Memphis to Dallas to Mobile to Savannah and beyond. We’d fortify Bobby’s schemes and outright cons with bloody effect if challenged. We even come up against other confidence men along the way who tried to claim various territories as their own, and for them we provided particularly painful corrections – Most of which allowed for very few survivors.

We’d become the notorious Bunning Brothers gang – Or Firm.