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by chris.
bunny toulep was sitting next to a door waiting for the bus. she didn't know this, but the door had been placed there that morning at 3:47 by ralph gentry, son of peter gentry. neither ralph nor bunny knew this, but at that very moment 10:12 in the morning, peter gentry, having lost his wife, cheryl, seven years ago to a car accident that snapped her neck in half (almost), was by himself in his apartment choking on a large piece of scrambled egg that had stubbornly lodged itself in his windpipe. this is how peter's life ends, but ralph will not know this until six o'clock that evening. bunny occasionally stared at the door. she could see where ralph had hacked the hinges out with a hatchet (she mistakenly thought this had been done by force; by someone having kicked the door in) and she saw the flecks of blood on the door, most of it old, dry, maroon blood that had been there for very long. hacking and hacking, the wood splintering and sticking into him. "chop that fucker!" jennifer had cried. jennifer was ralph's wife, and she was skinny, tall, and angry, angry all the time. "chop it!" the door had hurt them too many times, so many times that they decided to finally rid their lives of it. "chop it!" she squatted on the couch screaming at ralph from behind him. her face was red with exertion. bunny's face was red with embarassment. even with the door chopped down and thrown out it still ruined someone's life. the people walking by bunny, or the people standing and waiting for the bus with bunny, looked at her as if the door was hers. how could it be hers? she wasn't an exceptionally strong woman. she couldn't have possibly carried the door all the way to the bus, and then expect to load it onto the bus after it arrived. but still the assumptions continued to be made. when ralph finished the hinges he threw the door down the stairwell of their apartment. "yaaaaaaaah!" cried jennifer. "we woooooon!" she beat her breasts in triumph and ralph wiped the sweat from his forehead with his shirt sleeve. ralph walked down to where the battered, blood flecked door sat, lodged in the stairwell. he kicked it free, then took it out the door and into the street, dropping it on the bench outside their apartment building. he spit on it, a giant, rolling ball of spit he had been saving up the whole time he was hacking. bunny couldn't see this blob of spit. it had been evaporated that morning as the sun rose. she did wonder where the flecks of blood had come from. she didn't know that the reason the blood flecks were there was also the reason that the door's hinges were hacked out as jennifer screamed from the couch, why the door was flung down the stairwell, why it was dragged out onto the bench, and why it now sat on that bench next to her, next to bunny. this was also the reason, indirectly, that people were laughing and pointing at bunny sitting next to the door on the bench. before ralph began his hacking, he was sitting on the couch, the same couch from which jennifer was to be screaming. jennifer came home, opening the door, that door, and walked through the doorway. before she had cleared the door's swing, it flung itself shut, smashing her sandaled toe and bending the nail back, spraying blood on the bottom of the door. "bitch!" she screamed, punching the door. she hopped further into the apartment, cursing and screaming, holding her toe. "that's the last time!" she screamed at ralph. "get that fucker out of our house!" ralph knew what he had to do. he walked firmly and purposefully to the fireplace and picked up the hatchet that sat next to the firewood. he walked to the door and stared at it, smiling, gripping the hatchet in his hand. bunny saw the freshest blood from jennifer's foot on the bottom of the door, but she didn't realize that it was fresh. she didn't inspect the door that carefully. the bus pulled up to the bus stop, and the dozen people waiting for it began to get in line to get on. bunny took one more look at the door, then stood up and waited. she didn't see this, but at that moment the door lying on the bench swung in the air and slammed into her. this caught her off guard; she was not expecting the door she had been sitting next to would have such an act in it, but it did. it threw her body into the side of the bus and her head slammed into it first. she fell to the ground, splattering new blood on the door. and ralph didn't know that bunny toulep, who had been sitting next to the door, his door, who had been absorbing its embarassment, was dead. at this point, he also didn't know that his father, peter gentry, was lying cold and dead on his, peter's, kitchen floor. the paramedics would be called at three in the afternoon when joseph feller, the seventeen year old high school student who came by peter gentry's home every tuesday to play othello, would find peter dead on his kitchen floor. the paramedics would arrive, discern that he was, in fact, dead, and clear the lump of yellow egg from his throat. the lump of yellow egg would later be destroyed with other various items in a container labeled "hazardous waste." this day, of course, was the last day joseph feller ever came to peter gentry's home to play othello. ralph gentry didn't know joseph feller, and joseph had only heard of ralph in brief conversations with peter. but, joseph and peter's relationship is now dead. bunny toulep is now dead. peter gentry is now dead. three deaths and not one does ralph gentry know about. |