Life on the Farm Ain’t Easy

Jake tuned the radio to Murdock’s Castle. A magician traveled the country and rescued children every harvest. The children were brought to live in a magical castle with ice cream.

“I hope he picks us!” Jake yelled. Maw combed sister’s hair silently.

“Dumbass! Murdock ain’t never...” his brother looked up at the floorboards overhead creaking under Paw’s boots. “Oh, fuck.”

The children took their seats.

“Jakey,” Maw called, “sit with me.”

Paw stumbled down the steps. Jake’s stomach knotted up, uncertain, but feeling dread. Paw took a long draw of whiskey and mumbled, “...God forgive me.”

Paw ripped the belt from his pants and beat his children. Maw cradled Jake’s head as he cried in terror, watching the savage blows.

Paw screamed in anguish as his children failed to shield themselves from the lashings. Paw stopped at the sound of horns blasting out front. A recognizable voice blared.

“CONGRATULATIONS THOMPSON CHILDREN! MURDOCK IS HERE!”

The children smiled and embraced. They were lead out of the home and into the first black SUV, Jake’s older brother spit on Paw and flipped him off. Jake ran out after them.

“Whoa whoa,” Murdock put a powerful hand to Jake’s chest, “where you going?”

“The castle, Murdock!” Jake said.

“You have a very important job here. Your father will explain,” Murdock smiled to Paw, “won’t you dad?”

Jake saw something glistening in Murdock’s mouth that scared him back a few steps, sharp fangs.

“You can’t take my babies again!” Maw screamed and ran at Murdock with Paw’s axe. A man in black grabbed Maw’s head and gave a sharp twist. She collapsed.

Murdock got into the car and drove off with Jake’s siblings.

The men in the second SUV forced a brunette teenager up the front porch. They tossed Maw’s body into the trunk as if it were nothing more than a sack’a chicken feed.

One of the men bit his wrist, and caught black liquid into a shot glass. He handed the glass to Paw, who cursed the men— they laughed. Paw drank and the color returned to his hair. Paw’s muscles tightened and old scars faded. Paw could now pass for Jake’s older brother, Jake thought so anyways.

“See you again in forty, farmer,” the man with the bleeding wrist called out. “Better yet, make it nineteen, so that one,” he pointed to Jake, “can start his own farm.” They drove off.

“Your husband, he fight back?” Paw asked the girl.

“Yes, they killed him for hiding our girls after refusing to beat them. He wouldn’t listen. I told him, ‘you can’t fight fate’. “

Paw looked at the girl, “I had a teacher used to say the same.”

“I remember you from my class, William Thompson.”

Paw chuckled.

Paw pulled the family portrait down and laid the picture amid countless others in the box he kept under the stairs. Paw turned to Jake and took another long draw of whiskey.

“Life on the farm ain’t easy, boy.”