5 Billy's story

Normalcy returned surprisingly quickly to the lives of the townspeople. Marjoe thought it was quite uncanny how fast the people seemed to forget about the whole thing. Especially after making such a big fuss about in beforehand. But the second the Undertaker had left the town, everybody seemed to erase his existence from their minds. Only behind closed doors, you could hear the people whisper and speculate about what had happened.

Marjoe himself only found out about what had gone down about a week later. And not because of a lack of trying. In actuality, he had asked pretty much everybody he saw about it. But either they didn't know themself, or they acted all superior telling Marjoe that it wasn't his business and that he shouldn't concern himself with such grown-up matters.

The person who finally told him was the son of the Miller family, Billy Miller, himself.

Harvest season had come especially early this year, and so all the kids that were old enough to walk were put to work. While the older children helped the adults in the fields, the younger ones were given easier tasked they could complete without hurting themselves.

Therefore, Marjoe ended up peeling off the husk of corn cobs with Susanna and Billy. And since tact was a foreign concept to Marjoe, he asked Billy right away what had happened to his mother.

Billy instantly burst into tears, and Susanna threw Marjoe a menacing look while she gently patted Billy's shoulder. Billy continued sobbing, but after he had calmed down a bit the words flew out of him like he had held them back for a long time. The way he told his story was chaotic and confusing, and some parts seemed to go nowhere, but the gist of it was pretty straight forward.

Billy had been in the forest when the Undertaker had arrived. Not knowing if her son was alright, Abby had been terrified and wanted to go out to look for him. Jack, however, had stopped her and convinced her to stay home and wait for Billy to come back instead. Jack had never been particularly fond of his son since Billy was rather small and weak for his age. He was often sick, and his medicine cost a lot of money. So in his father's eyes, he was not only a weakling but also very expensive.

"I'm a failure!" Billy cried his face covered in snot and tears. It took him a couple of minutes before he could continue his story.

When Billy still hadn't come home after three hours, Abby had insisted on finding him, and when Jack refused to let her out, a fight had broken loose.

Jack Miller was well known for being hot-tempered and occasionally violent, so unsurprisingly, it hadn't taken him very long to raise his hand and backhand his wife across the face.

But instead of just taking a step back, she had stumbled over a loose floorboard and landed with her neck on the nearby kitchen table. The sharp edge, coupled with the momentum of her fall, had cleanly severed her spinal cord. She was dead instantly.

In other words, Jack Miller's bad temper and a good portion of bad luck had ended Abbys live within less than a minute.

"It's all my fault," Billy wept after finishing his chaotic storytelling and hugged his knees for comfort. "If I hadn't stayed out so long, nothing of this would have happened, and the Undertaker would have taken someone else." He started to sway back and forth while he rambled on and on.

"Dad says the same thing. He said that if I hadn't been born, mom would still be alive, and they wouldn't be poor, and their life would be so much better and that it would be better if I were the one who died and that I am worthless."

He gasped for air and made a little noise in the back of his throat that reminded Marjoe of an injured animal.

"That's not true," Susanna protested her face almost as wet as Billy's. "You're so smart and kind, and it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known what would happen while you were gone. You've done nothing wrong, Billy!"

Susanna pulled the crying boy towards her and hugged him tightly.

Marjoe didn't know what to do with himself. It was the first time he experienced death, and even though he wasn't all that close to either Billy or his mom, the meaning of losing a loved one slowly started to sink in.

He imagined what it would be like if his mother were suddenly gone. To never see her again. To never get cuddled and kissed as only a mother could. To never be scolded again for being too loud or too rowdy or for not cleaning his shoes properly before coming in.

And because it was all just a bit too much he threw his head back and cried together with the two kids who would soon become irreplaceable to him.