Word Count:\u00a0 375<\/p>\n

I had heard that she\u2019d painted the walls red, deep red, which was all that would cover the stains that would bleed right through three, four coats of paint, even deep evergreen like the old firs that shaded the cottage. They would bleed like a freshly cut wound, or the scab picked before it was ripe. Blistering through, a shade every day, darker, deeper, eventually matching the original blood-red that spattered each room.<\/p>\n

It made me laugh, when I heard that. It was so typical Mama; persistent, insistent, edging and pushing and squeezing all breath from your lungs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d all left, Sadie, and Frieda, and Bobby, and me right before Daddy had died. I\u2019d gone to New York and came back just for his funeral. Though Frieda and I keep in touch with newsletters at Christmas, I haven\u2019t been back in seven years. Sadie\u2019s got a house and a family somewhere out in Ohio, but Bobby and Frieda have their own places right there in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s gone,\u201d Frieda said on the phone. That was on Monday and I\u2019d made reservations at a motel and packed a few things for the drive. Frieda said that I\u2019d have to stay a few days to settle things up with legalities but I told her she could do what she wanted and I didn\u2019t care what became of the house. Really, I didn\u2019t think they could sell it at all. Maybe just raze it and level the ground.<\/p>\n

But I did stay on a bit longer, after the service, after the last snickering neighbor had eaten the funeral feast over at Frieda\u2019s and night flickered down. And I came back in the morning and sat with my siblings and none of us said it aloud. Finally Bobby got up from the table and said he\u2019d go over alone. We made small talk as families who don\u2019t really talk to each other must do to fill up the time.<\/p>\n

He came back an hour later and I knew just what he\u2019d say. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to burn it down,\u201d Bobby said, \u201cjust get rid of it.\u201d He looked up and his eyes were all hollow and dark. His fingers twitched on the table. \u201cIt\u2019s bleeding more than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count:\u00a0 375 I had heard that she\u2019d painted the walls red, deep red, which was all that would cover the stains that would bleed right through three, four coats of paint, even deep evergreen like the old firs that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[25,24],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2012","category-horror","tag-100-days-2012","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}