A Rush to Violence Read Free

the park, his marriage to Gloria was in the shit, but he was with Katie and his oldest daughter, Beth, who was sitting in the grass watching them in her usual summer attire—a white tank top and a pair of shorts. Her brown hair hung just to her shoulders and curled up a bit at the ends. Her forehead was shiny with perspiration. When she knew she had his attention, she smiled at him and sometimes waved. But in those moments when she thought he wasn’t looking her way, her face was dead with expression.
    It was hot. He remembered that. If the air was moving, none of them felt it. Nothing seemed to move that day with the exception of them, those around them and the dogs trotting throughout the park sniffing trees, bushes and other dogs. The trees were still. The grass was motionless. Though they’d been there a good hour, even the sun had anchored itself to the sky and seemed unwilling to scan across it.
    It took over a dozen attempts for Katie to catch the ball, but when success came, it was sweet. He lobbed it just as softly as he had before, but this time it sort of sank into her open arms and when it didn’t fall out, the shock on her face was real. She clutched the ball to her chest and turned to her sister, who clapped and cheered even though her dark eyes gave away the turmoil she was holding back.
    She had just turned eleven a week before and she was old enough now to sense what was coming. Her parents’ relationship was dissolving. Their fights were no longer carefully tamped down. Instead, they often escalated to the point of shouting. She was bearing witness to an emotional unraveling too many of her own friends had gone through before her.
    This was Manhattan, after all, the city of the crumbling family. She knew what was happening. There were times when he felt that if he and Gloria did go through with the divorce that Beth, at the very least, would be relieved on some level because the fighting would end.
    At least, that’s what he told himself.
    Looking at her now and seeing the sorrow on her face, he knew better. They were just telling themselves that to make their decision easier.
    Katie ran over and gave him the ball. Her curly blonde hair was matted to her forehead, but at least she was smiling and her smile was real. She was too young to know that her parents had screwed up. He kissed her on the cheek and she ran back, expecting to catch the ball again.
    But this time, when he tossed it to her and she caught it, the men in the trees appeared. They hooked the backs of their knees around thick branches, dropped down like bats and swung until they became motionless. Upside down, they stared at him. One man cocked his head at him. Meanwhile, below, other men emerged from behind the trees and from within the bushes.
    Their appearance wasn’t something he remembered because it never happened. Still, there they were in his dream, casually loading their rifles in the open as if that was something one did in Central Park.
    When a breeze picked up, it became a wind. The sun, so motionless before, rapidly arced across the sky, dipped behind the trees and the once-hot air cooled. Families and their dogs left in haste, leaving just him, Beth and Katie to face men who now lifted their rifles.
    Katie saw none of it. She threw the ball, giggled as it soared the distance between her and her father, and then she jolted forward when her head exploded onto the cut grass.
    Without expression, Beth watched her sister fall. Then she stood, her arms held open as if she welcomed what was coming. They peppered her with bullets, he watched her fall back and then he felt himself sharing a similar fate as a hail of bullets seared holes through his chest.
    He fell to his knees with such a crashing thud, it woke him.
    His eyes snapped open and he gave a start. Jennifer was sleeping beside him and stirred. The room was dark. He was covered in perspiration. He slipped out of bed, went to the master bath, closed the door and turned on