Almost-a-Murderer Series: As the Cuckoo Flies Kindle Edition
PROLOGUE
Married 50 wondrous years, Marjorie and Henry’s family, co-workers, and friends toasted their longevity year after year amid growing hypocritical ‘congratulations’ and snickers because rumors flew like a cuckoo about frightening fights increasing since the onset of the pandemic that would culminate on the eve of their 50th-anniversary party. A ‘grand finale’ for at least one of the parties. The tragic event organized, sadly, by three co-conspirators–the husband and the wife themselves secretly conspiring against the other by means of a third-party who seeks the death of them both.
Gossip leaks spread about Marjorie and Henry instead of encouragement and sincere praise because of successful climbs out and over peaks and valleys of adversity. No one descending to water down their cultured rages as many wait in shadowed silence to benefit from their impending catastrophic failure…
Not just monetarily… Thought: If they can’t make it, then marriages aren’t meant to be… We can cease trying expectantly.
So what do Marjorie, Henry, and the other member of this intrigue have in deplorable store?
What, if anything, would close the door on murder?
And even more, how can we benefit from their story?
***
Into Le Magnifique–a luxurious hotel in Martha’s Vineyard, still busy during Covid’s season because of excellent cuisine and a regal atmosphere, masked and unmasked young and old guests from all over the U.S. took their turns at the dark marbled front desk or lingering in the tiled lobby waiting to be escorted to their comfortable rooms. They were composed of long-time friends and family of Marjorie and Henry Wainscot–A warm couple coming upon fifty years of marriage. The occasion had been two years in planning by their four offspring and best friends:
The oldest–Jonathan with his wife Gale arrived the night before from Chicago. Jonathan was forty-eight years old and had become an engineer like his father. Matter-of-fact, he seemed to be a younger replica of him with light brown skin on a tall toned frame which usually wore expensive suits and casual wear to events arranged by Gale, a mixed race beauty of exquisite taste. Lately, due to the pandemic, their high ended living expenses has caused them much concern.
Then there is Rachel. Forty-four and again single. For the third time. She flew in from L.A. with a trail of luggage holding an assortment of beauty products and outfits designed to show off her still curvy 5’6 physique to the best possible advantage. A dark-skinned beauty, she needed husband four to have a lot of cash. And hopefully, be the last.
The twins, Kevin and Crystal, were twenty-years-old and both enrolled in internet schooling from Martha’s Vineyard. Popular due to appearance and a thriving social following detailing their daily ‘doings’. They were always searching for more small events to make the most influential social impact… Kevin and Crystal decided to share a suite at the hotel to document their parent’s momentous occasion.
David and Stacy Pollard arrived from Decatur, Georgia. Marjorie’s and Henry’s hometown before retiring to Martha’s Vineyard. Friends since high school, David and Stacy now kept in touch mainly virtually. With four children of their own, except stair-step in ages ranging from forty-eight to forty-five with a host of grandchildren, they were kept pretty occupied with gift-giving reunions and graduations. So this anniversary celebration was a needed respite…
And after a quite enjoyable visit with a favored niece and her husband visiting from Connecticut–Michael and Carol Laud, David and Stacy coerced them to ‘tag-along’ with them to the Vineyard.
Their even-keeled demeanor desired to bridge a growing gulf between the couples. Of jealously inspired.
LIT FROM WITHIN
https://allpoetry.com/story/14975544-Lit-From-Within–contest-The-Parables-of-Jesus–Part-8–Lamp-unde-by-Seah-Ray
Hidden under a basket
not boldly on a lampstand
ends in a shadowy casket.
Final–thoughts and acts of blind man.
*
Expelled a demon from one
Causing speechless to him come.
Praises should’ve sprout forth from all
As Light–Not darkness, to withdraw.
*
If our eyes do not focus
might we miss this brilliant light:
This one sent to earth with purpose–
His Father’s will his main delight?
*
Let lamplight radiant from within.
To Jah’s & Christ’s glory before men.
CHAPTER ONE
For forty-five minutes, Marjorie and Henry sat in their Camry with the windows cracked to enjoy the cool breeze off the Atlantic Ocean while the Steamship Authority transported them back to Oaks Bluffs. Henry lightly drummed the steering wheel puzzled by a tune Marjorie kept humming since they’d left their financial advisor Carl’s office. Her pleasant humming raised the hairs on his arms.
“Hey, Marge… What is that tune you keep humming? It’s unfamiliar.”
Inside Marjorie smiled… “Just something catchy I heard on the radio earlier,” she lied… For some reason these words “I know what you said. I heard what you did. I know who you saw. I know what you hid” continually circled inside her head. She wished that maybe she should sing it on TikTok with her twins as backup. Just as a lark. But reconsidered. “That would be too obvious,” she mused… Carl had informed her of just how Henry her used.
She glanced over at Henry and smiled for real… “It is catchy, isn’t it?” Then turned her face towards the fast approaching dock. Clouds beginning to darken the sky as the water became choppy.
IN IRE’S EYES
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14501241–In-ires-eyes—by-Seah-Ray
In ire’s eyes
dances
crimson flames.
(A Seductive
dame.)
By calmness
contained
like gentle rain
tapping out
agitated
fire
in a dry field
posed
to ignite–
a global plain
into
blazing.
To
incinerate:
A peaceful knight.
*
“A man of knowledge restrains his words,
And a discerning man will remain calm.”
Proverbs 17:27.
“I guess we made it back just in time,” she continued. Her comments churning inside Henry’s head like the ocean with a dark incoming dread mimicking the island’s impeding storm. Unfortunately, Marge’s upbeat spirit spelled trouble. “It had throughout their 49 years of marriage,” Henry thought… Actually, he didn’t recognize the pattern until well into there union. With the kids, work, vacation plans filling their days, it wasn’t until the twins arrived that things got really rocky. They popped up after a night of too-much rum.
In the beginning it didn’t take rum to bed his wife. A gorgeous shapely dark woman with a throaty laugh that once impelled him to cross a crowded club and finagle his way through her admirers to her right side with a glass of red. Surprised, she took the glass and a sip. Something not suggested to do now-a-days. And not something he even desires to do anymore.
A BREEZE–PLEASE
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14123900-A-Breeze–Please-by-Seah-Ray
A breeze I sought;
do now seek
from valleys low
to high peaks
mountainous.
A lift to swell
my heart dark
with phrases well
please impart
spontaneous.
Encouragement
delicious
pleasingly sweet;
nutritious
extemporaneous.
They to me needs
be–a wind
on a deep sea.
Too, of men
consanguineous.
Henry started the car and pulled carefully off the ferry. And Marjorie continued her humming. Her mind thinking upon the lovely red sequined gown she would be wearing to their anniversary party. Fifty long years… Admittedly, it still flew like the seagulls overhead squawking their discontent. The days of romance blown past fast with children, work, and then more kids… Somewhere she lost herself. But now she sees a future free to become who she was really meant to be…beloved.
Not her thoughts: Journey
https://allpoetry.com/story/16268904-Journeys-by-Seah-Ray
Oftentimes
I’ve learned to enjoy journeys
to destinations
I did not seek;
for while climbing,
walking, running, strolling,
or sliding
I found myself ascending verdant hills
descending daisied valleys magnificent
as hawks, eagles, wrens, and snakes
I encountered
growing to strong
from weak…
To eventually scale
a small mountain
peak.
Yes, sun’s rays warmed my skin
and fluctuating shadows frightened me.
Through both times I raised my eyes
for you to thank and for you to seek.
***
“Jehovah is good to all,
And his mercy
is evident in all his works.” Ps. 145:9.
ONE PAINFUL TRUTH
https://allpoetry.com/poem/13419353-One-Painful-Truth-by-Seah-Ray
I’d trade a thousand lovely lies, for one painful truth
I shall not despise.
Cinderella wasn’t a happily ever after.
Millions of divorces deride in tragic proof.
Swatting flies with our wedding certificate
symbolizing how a roaring flame dwindles,
if not even singly inflamed,
into embers dying growing steadily
insignificant. Like the feather
weighing more than all the love
you left me. Nearly broken.
Under a bleeding moon.
Then poof!
Flying to Death.
Leaving the Living behind
though, never ready, when it’s saying goodbye…
Yet, there exists a heroism in
the silence of accepting the end
as one Can’t save a falling star.
A third of the heavens ousted down
exemplify this terrifying truism
our earth now
their iniquitous
demonistic
‘lar’.*
That traveling light fleeing your sight?
If you can see it, its dead.
Dead still
when you gaze again
pretending that it’ll never end.
Love
unfilled
leaves
dried out one’s will to live
if not forgiving
oneself and others
freely
letting go.
Until,
fulfilled:
“Your dead will live.
My corpses will rise up.
Awake and shout joyfully,
You residents in the dust!
For your dew is as the dew of the morning,
And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.”
So,
“Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of your futile life,
which He has given you under the sun,
all the days of your futility,
for that is your lot in life
and in your hard work at which you toil under the sun.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going.”
A ‘truth’ painful or lovely to you?
***
As Henry ran hot water into his tub of passion fruit and grapefruit bubble bath with lavender Epsom salts, Marjorie watched, positioned before her lighted magnification mirror. Paused from plucking rapid returning stubborn hairs from her chin in an otherwise still youthful face of medium brown hued skin. Usually warm brown eyes squinted while Henry’s robe, once encircled a muscular frame. Now it could barely contain flesh grown soft in excesses.
Her look? One of disdain, while indeed, Henry’s eyes held the same, as he circled his hand in the expanding rising bubbles. He glanced back to see her peer into a mirror which projected her face into grotesque wicked distortion. A sneaky smirk lifting his mouth as he thought about what he’d plan to do later today. After the party. And Marjorie too had murder in mind.
They’d each discussed it individually with a ‘friend’. How they’d plan to do each other in. It would be simple since each had their routines. And neither had ever thought to concoct anything so extreme: Poison each other’s nighttime drink. For eternal sleep. An end to no longer dream. A fifty year Grand Finale.
What each did not know was that this family ‘confident’ and ‘friend’ also planned to fill their drinks with an additional poison. Designed to finish off both, if any one of the two decided their action to rethink. To be administered by another family member or friend ‘knowingly’ or ‘unknowingly’?
CHAPTER TWO
A wild rose
I am not.
Though, I’ve dreamed
a particular freedom felt…
Strength and a spectacular beauty
dealt to that lovely breed of rose
seeded along nature’s road.
Although, sown among rocky soil.
Tickled to bend by vibrant breezes.
Plucked in youthful passing spoiled
in young love’s heed to speedily pleasing
to enable harsh thoughtless groping… Juvenile squeezing… More picking… Senseless teasing.
Defenseless
off the vine. Crushed between fingers.
Hearts later sorrowful… pricked to bleeding.
He loves me… He loves me not…?
Inwardly pleading
for a vase.
*
No.
I traveled across a stormy sea
as a tight-bud
before my journey to find you…
For your loving gaze
to inspire me to be…
*
Delicate
I lie in your hands
after
upon volcanic rock bred
my petals too
velvety soft to touch
so fair… since thoughtfully fed.
Watered
my veins by a drip dripping strain
to moisten our greenhouse’s flower beds
where we’re beautifully contained.
Protected from harsh heat, high winds, direct sun and heavy rains in an atmosphere perfect to maintain my vivid coloring.
My fragrance light
delightful to tickle your nose
and sweeten your desirable air
with distance now closed between us… shared…
I grew in soil sought explicit to find.
Cultivated truly divine, I desire to speak.
For when peaked
I bloom full… “This you seek?… Yes?”
A rose not fulfilled, but wilted
brings forth gloom.
But in your hands I am defined
as exquisite… sublime. I’ve come to believe.
You gently avoid my sharp pointed thorns…
You cup me to inhale…
Upon your person
I lovingly you adorn…
I am me
to you
a symbol born…
Know that your love is warmly worn
upon my flesh which you gently caress.
Cherish… We
each other bless.
For
you do know
that an intrinsic glow
comes from your generous caring
when
I,
The Rose,
Is upon you… bestowed.
“David, do you have time to listen to this poem I composed for Marjorie and Henry’s Anniversary Party?… I need to know if Marge will feel a bit of kinship with me again after I read it,” Stacy asked while leaning against the doorjamb of David’s office. He was hurriedly trying to stuff a manila envelop into his desk drawer… He did not understand why Marjorie and Henry’s financial advisor Carl would send He and Stacy nude photos of a young Marjorie signed to ‘David with love’… That ship has been sunk.
“Of all times to drag up past hidden sins… Here Stacy and I are finally bonding like old times–… Surely neither Henry or Marge is trying to sabotage our newfound peace!… Do they not have any idea how hard-earned this has been?… On top of everything else a failed business because of Henry’s pulling out leaving me footing the bill after his wife’s constant pursuit of me because of his ‘duties’ unfulfilled!
“Honey, did you hear me?”
“Yes… Yes, but I am in the middle of something right now dear. Can I possibly hear it later?”
“Sure,” said Stacy wondering what has gotten David into a flutter.
Back into their country kitchen, she reread what she had written:
GIRLFRIENDS–OUR HILARITY
https://allpoetry.com/story/15614245-Girlfriends–Our-Hilarity–contest-What-In-Your-Life-Made-You-Lau-by-Seah-Ray
In what we felt
was really a safer time?
this one true
girl friend
of mine
beside me
walked home
as the darkness of the evening
fast fell,
we feeling unchained
like birds chirping in trees;
for not assailed
by heavy pebbles
in an attempt to cripple
our wings.
Nor
hail
fell
to pummel us
permanently
as we lightly skipped about
in life
near-sighted,
plus,
obviously green.
Sighted
a white van.
Seen
two men
outside opened doors
standing
conversing
who we both thought
we knew.
Flailing our arms
like
silly ducks taking flight
we flew
rapidly
excited
in quick stride
to catch a ride,
when
instantly
we braked
beside them.
We could not hide
our embarrassment
before those strangers
then,
leering in delight.
Fall over
we did
in awful bends;
not able to flee…
Instead,
we tilted to lean heavily
against a brick building
near those puzzled men,
us laughing–
not in conscious fright,
due to our near-sightedness.
Our glasses tucked
out-of-sight;
invariably,
making us blind
to an individual’s
crucial identity
needed
especially
at night.
But then our priority?
Our legs and knees
we tightly squeezed
so as not to produce
dual tragic streams
to their curbside.
Doubly disturbing
if unleased
to further our youthful hilarity.
Where once a disturbance existed between them she couldn’t believe, because of a situation where both women were of the same man–Stacy’s husband–smitten.
LEAH’S EYES
https://allpoetry.com/poem/12270833-Leahs-Eyes-by-Seah-Ray
I.
Unloved as heat on a desert plain
Upon my breast no favor claimed
As in a tent cuddled she cooed
Her beauty my position shooed
As chaff on a swirling twirling wind.
My lot as second commences. Ends.
II.
In the twilight of our lives
Forgotten deceitful lies that hid
Lack of luster of my eyes
As mandrakes shared as bitter hire
Multiplied our joyful progeny joined
As priests and kings compatible sired.
III.
Love flamed in time precedes then mellows
And hatred felt can then too settle
Into breezes cooling heated tongues
As envy turned pleasant over years begun
And children raised under nurturing suns
Calmed blood of sister in marriage once shunned.
Stacy went to the refrigerator and glanced over the pictures of their children and grandchildren. She smiled at all they’d accomplished over the years… It hadn’t been easy, but David was again her best friend and she wouldn’t have wanted to take this journey with anyone else despite the nightmares and tears.
True, it’s only been since her niece Carol and her husband Mike have started visiting them regularly that she and David have really reconnected. Put away doubts and fears. Their conversations and friendship have bonded them in a peaceful way that she, David, Marjorie, and Henry never have. Surprisingly, despite Mike and Carol’s youth… They shared a wisdom uncommon today. Their prayers and thoughtfulness gave David and Stacy a newfound joy in day-to-day living and a wonderful hope for the future; despite mankind’s increasing darkness through which it is difficult to peer.
She felt about them as a couple does about peers in this poem, which in a recent ‘chapbook’ appeared:
BANJAN WINTERS
https://allpoetry.com/story/16233116-Bajan-Winters–Contest-Gary-Snyder-Poem-Prompt—Ursulawmccabe–by-Seah-Ray
Did you move back to Barbados
where snow doesn’t blow
into drifts higher than my knees
which didn’t impede me plus three others
trudging through freezing temperatures
smiling, tripping, sliding;
even when a couple slid down subway steps
forced into occupation as sliding board
of packed ice,
where one mate quietly disappeared
without any preliminary anticipation
and then other giggling also
like a happy child flew?…
Yes, a blizzard twice with a hungry crew
that diminished by two the next year.
Not because of your cooking
I tell you..
What is it about your banquet spread
of pumpkin soup, pig tails, peas and rice,
fishcakes, black cake, macaroni pie
(wasn’t there goat,
and mouth-watering bread?… Not flying fish
we ate in your native state…)
But what is it that tells the heavenly skies
comprised of nimbostratus clouds
to drop consistent exquisite individual flakes
before our childlike delighted eyes
on those particular dates?
Still-in-all,
us four did not even hesitate
to bundle up, pull shut our doors
on warmth of personal homes.
For your sweet comforting smile
would be worth the thrilling journey
alone.
Who am I kidding?
It’s you and Bajan fare.
Even to Barbados to gather there.
That’s why Stacy and David were thrilled to find out that Mike and Carol Laud would be able to attend the anniversary party with them… “Matter-of-fact, I’d better finish packing,” Stacy remembered in good spirits and cheers.
CONTENTMENT
https://allpoetry.com/poem/12161228-Contentment-by-Seah-Ray
I guess it slips up on you–
Sly like.
A gentle touch
on the shoulder
from behind
from a loved one’s hand.
You’re surprised!
“When did you arrive?!
How did you get here?!
I’ve been searching for you;
praying for you;
I’m glad you came!
How long can you stay?”
I say
with the English novel
now pushed away.
As I smell and hear
the boil of pork. As I feel
the cool from spiraling
blades
on the sweat of my bare arms
and as I gaze through the
open french doors
providing little relief
from summer’s blaz-
ing heat. As I hear him play
with the barbecue seasoning its meat.
And in my heart…
“I’m glad you could come.
Hope you won’t stray.”
CHAPTER THREE… ALMOST-A-MURDERER SERIES: As the Cuckoo Flies Kindle Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HQDJN83
© 31 minutes ago, Lucretia McCloud teen • society • hope • family • friendship • love
ITH & SB 