A Very Bad Easter Read online

A Very Bad Easter

  Lotus Rose

  Copyright 2010 by Lotus Rose

  Discover other titles by Lotus Rose at loteyrose.com

  Books by Lotus Rose~ The Corruption of Innocence, MachoPoni: A Prance with Death, The Redemption of Reckoning, SinEaster, Faerie Brace-Face, The Doll Queen

  Charlee, a seventeen-year-and-364-day-old hot blond girl, had hated Easter ever since she was seven years old. A lot of unpleasant things had happened to her on that holiday.

  For example, there was the Easter morning when she was 15, when she had gone outside to find her house spray-painted with a red swastika and the words, “KKK HATES YOU!” She had no idea why the KKK would hate her. She had a peaches-and-cream complexion.

  Then there was the Easter when she was 14, when she and her family had come down with a bad case of food poisoning after dinner. They’d spent the night in the emergency room.

  And then there was the time when Charlee had a very bad Easter.

  Seven-year-old Charlee had been so excited the night before Easter that she’d gone to sleep with her white bunny ears on.

  Her father had handcuffed her ankles and wrists while she was sleeping, then tied a handkerchief over her mouth. He carried her to the living room and set her on the couch—she still had her droopy bunny ears on. Then he shook her awake.

  She opened her eyes, then watched him. She remembered the crazy look in her father’s eyes as he stood and calmly held the sawed-off shotgun across his chest. He called out for Mama.

  Mama called back from the bedroom, “I’m coming! Hold on…”

  A few moments later, Mama entered the living room. She was still in her pajamas—she was smiling, and squinting—she looked half asleep.

  Father rushed forward, grabbed Mama behind her shoulder and threw her to the floor. Mama fell to the carpet on her hands and knees. Then Mama looked over at Charlee, and Mama’s eyes went wide. Tears streamed down Charlee’s face as she sobbed and stared back.

  Mama looked up at Father, who leveled the gun at her. Mama’s voice quivered as she said, “Wh-what are you doing?”

  A strange expression came over Father’s face—a mixture of amusement with vacant eyes. He said, “Well, maybe I’m killing you. It all depends on whether you can find the egg.”

  “What are you talking about? Quit joking around! This isn’t funny!”

  “Well, it’s a little funny, but the joke is on me. Let me ask you a question. Do you remember an Easter eight years ago? It was before Charlee was born. About nine months before she was born…”

  Mama was trembling. “What do you mean? I don’t remember, exactly. I remember we lived in the old house…”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Father said. “See I’ve been trying to remember. I went to sleep with you and when I woke up, you were beside me, but who knows where you were the whole time I was asleep? Do you remember? Did you do anything that night?”

  “I don’t know what you mean. I was asleep the whole night.”

  “Ah, so now you remember?” he asked.

  “Well, maybe I went to the bathroom during the night or something! How am I supposed to remember? What are you talking about? Put the gun down.”

  Father shook his head. “Move and I’ll kill you. Now…try to remember that night. Do you remember ever getting out of bed and maybe…fucking somebody else!”

  Mama looked up at him and swallowed hard. “Watch your language in front of Charlee. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Well,” Father sneered. “Maybe you just forgot. Let me refresh your memory. Do you remember…being with a guy who was dressed in an Easter Bunny costume? In the garage? You were doing it doggy style? Remember now?” He seemed amused, in a sad, crazy kind of way.

  Mama was choked up. All she could do was whimper, “No.”

  “Now, before you deny it, I think you should know that I’ve seen the video. I got the DVD this morning, in my Easter basket.” He pointed to the end table, where a DVD was sitting next to a chocolate bunny and the lamp. He continued, “Someone wrote, ‘Unhappy Easter’ on the DVD. And I watched it. You were a lot prettier back then. There was a date stamp on the video, and I believe it—because of your hairstyle and the newspaper the guy in the bunny suit conveniently held in front of the camera before you came into the room. And I could see your shaved girly part. I kept telling you how much I hated that, because, like I’ve said, it’s pride, which is sinful—in fact, it’s the deadliest of the seven sins! And by a weird coincidence, you started letting it grow the day after Easter! Was it coincidence, or was it maybe out of guilt? It’s all pretty hard to deny. And don’t try to say it was really me fu—hugging you, because my rabbit suit back then didn’t look anything at all like the one in the video.”

  “Oh god, please, baby! Let’s talk about it. I’m sorry, but it’s not what you think! He tricked me!”

  “Somehow I doubt that. What are you going to say next? That you were raped? You seemed to be enjoying yourself quite a bit in the video. We both know about your…fetish.”

  “Okay, I messed up! It was so long ago, though. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you! I’m sorry!”

  “Who was that guy in the bunny suit? One of your exes? Wait, forget that, I’m not even sure if I want to know. You’re right, it was a long time ago, but now, you see, I’m wondering…” He shook his head. “Is Charlee even mine? How would I know?”

  They both looked over at Charlee. Charlee with her bunny ears. Charlee who had gone to sleep only wanting to search for eggs and eat candy the next day.

  Mama said, “Let’s not do this in front of Charlee, okay?”

  Father shook his head. “No, I want her to know how you ruined Easter. She has to be here to see what happens. To see what a whore her mother is!”

  “Watch your language!”

  Father suddenly seemed ashamed. He nodded.

  He lowered his head sadly, then turned to look at Charlee. “I love you, Charlee. I don’t know how I’d feel if I found out you weren’t mine. I guess I’d love you just as much, it’s just—” He shook his head. “Your mother has ruined Easter. It’s not your fault.”

  He went to the end table and picked up the chocolate bunny that Charlee had been nibbling on the night before—she had eaten the eyes first, then one of the ears. Father smiled sadly, then said, “I’m like this bunny. I was too blind to see that your mother would hug and kiss anybody willing to put on a bunny suit.”

  Mama screamed, “That’s not true! I made a horrible mistake, but I’ve always loved you! We can work on this! We can go to counseling!”

  The vacant look in Father’s eyes terrified Charlee. He didn’t even look at Mama as he said, “We can go to counseling maybe…if you find the egg.”

  “What are you talking about? What egg?”

  “Well, since you have the habit of taking your wedding ring off while you sleep, I took it off the dresser this morning and I put it inside a plastic egg. I hid the egg somewhere in this room, along with seven other eggs…”

  “You’re talking crazy,” Mama whimpered.

  Father continued, “If you look on the shelf above the fireplace, you will see the egg timer. Push it and you will have exactly three minutes to find the ring and put it on your finger. If you do that, then we can try to fix things and stay together. If you don’t, then I figure it means God wants our marriage to be over, and I will blow your head off.”

  “No! You’re sick! You need to stop and think!”

  He pointed the gun at Mama’s head. “If you don’t play along, I will just kill you, because that, to me, means you’re not willing to put forth the effort to make this marriage work.”

  “Please, honey!”

  Father bit the ear off the chocolate b
unny, then with his mouth full, said, “Can’t hear you. Press the timer now. Hurry or I’ll kill you.”

  Mama seemed frozen in indecision for a moment. She looked at Father’s face, trying to read the expression…then she stood and walked to the fireplace. The egg timer was a device used to time the boiling of eggs. It was in the shape of an egg with a smiling face on it and it had arms and legs. When someone pressed the top of the egg, it swayed from side to side for three minutes, then it buzzed and shook when the time was up. Mama tapped down on the egg timer with her palm.

  She then began frantically searching the room for the egg. Father stood calmly watching while he nibbled on the chocolate bunny head.

  Mama found a yellow egg behind the television. With trembling hands, she opened it. A few jelly beans fell to the floor.

  Father chuckled then said, “You might soon be a has-bean.”

  Underneath the couch, Mama found a green egg. She opened it and looked inside, then flung it to the ground, spilling foil-wrapped chocolate Smooches to the floor.

  Father said, “Smooch your life goodbye.”

  Underneath a pillow on the couch, she found a pink egg. She opened it and almost began to sob as she let it fall, and on the carpet, a marshmallow chicken sat inside the plastic egg half.

  Father said, “Feeling scared? A little chicken?”

  The three minutes were almost up and Mama had begun sobbing hysterically. While on her hands and knees, she found another egg behind one of the legs of the couch. She picked it up just as the buzzer from the egg timer went off.

  “Please!” she sobbed.

  Father finished swallowing the bite of chocolate he’d just taken. He’d eaten the head off the chocolate bunny during the three minutes. “Have you learned your lesson? Stand up and face me.”

  Mama stood and turned toward him. She still hadn’t opened the egg she’d just found. She looked into Father’s eyes, waiting.

  He said, “The ring’s in that egg… So maybe you should put it on…” He gestured with his chin, then Mama opened the egg, and let the plastic egg fall. She put the ring on her finger, then her hands dropped to her side.

  Father smiled. Slowly, he raised the headless chocolate bunny up and showed it to Mama, then he said, “But your time was up.” He leveled the shotgun at her and blew her head off.

  Red splattered back and the headless body flew against the wall, knocking a painting of a flowery branch from the wall, then the body flopped onto the carpet.

  And as Charlee thrashed in terror and screamed silently into her gag, Father set the headless bunny on the end table, then picked up the DVD. He turned to face Charlee. He raised the DVD and held it in front of his face. Then he turned the shotgun around and pointed it at his face. “Sorry, sweety,” he said to Charlee. Then he pulled the trigger and destroyed both the DVD and his head in a booming shotgun blast.

  The police came shortly afterwards to find two headless bodies and a little girl handcuffed on the couch.

  The event was very traumatic for Charlee and resulted in many psychological problems that lasted even into her teenage years. For example, soon after the incident, she began wearing bunny ears every single day—all attempts to make her stop resulted in great distress for her. She also began wearing a symbol known as the corruptagram on a necklace. And when she entered into puberty, she was unable to shave her pubic hair, because, “Daddy hated it.” And she began to refer to her last name as “Frown.”

  And every year, a few days before every Easter, she would send Easter cards to herself through the mail. On each card, she would always write the same thing:

  Unhappy Easter, Charlee Frown.

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