Sisters

One of them wasn't even biological. But when Kate showed up with the body, no one asked any questions.

They climbed into Kate’s car silently, Jo groaning a little as she reached for the seatbelt, muttering something about the ungodly hour. Amber was deathly quiet, her jaw set tight. Kate drove.

They said nothing to each other, each one occupied with the body in the trunk, as if their conversation could only be held in the grave itself. Kate navigated in a general southerly direction, but they all knew where she was headed. When she paused before a turn, unsure if it was the right one, Amber assured her it was with a simple nod. Kate hadn’t given either of her sisters any warning before she showed up with the body. She couldn’t afford to make a phone call. No, this had to be done in person. There were certain things that couldn’t be communicated with words. Things, Kate discovered, that they had joked about long before. Things that she had filed away in her brain as a not-quite-viable plan, a vague idea, that came fully formed into her mind as soon as it was needed.

Jo asked the only question on the drive. “What did he do?”

Kate answered simply, “Nothing that hasn’t been done before.”

Jo stayed hunkered in her seat in the back. She chewed on her nail, a nervous habit, although she was otherwise oddly calm. She muttered a few more curses, rubbing her eyes at the ungodly hour, but stayed calm. She couldn’t say she was surprised when Kate showed up and popped the trunk, but had to marvel at how her sister managed to wrestle the corpse into it by herself. Kate was innovative and resourceful in a heartlessly cold way. Jo only wished that she had pulled the trigger herself.

“This driveway,” Amber said, pointing again, and Kate turned, driving down the country lane to the abandoned homestead.

She parked, and no one moved. Amber sighed to herself, examining the terrain that she’d known her entire life, working out the best way to move the body without causing a disturbance. All the while saying a silent little prayer for Kate, a prayer without words, just a need for Kate to be alright. Her heart said nothing for the dead man in the trunk. She was disturbed, deeply, that she didn’t feel sorry for the dead man. She probably should have been having some sort of moral crisis right about then, but it didn’t matter. There was a job that needed to be done, and Kate needed help.

Amber got out of the car first. Jo and Kate followed, and Amber took the lead.

“I’ll get the tractor,” she said, and stalked off towards the barn, flashlight in hand.

Jo sighed and pulled out a flask from her pocket, taking a sip before handing it to Kate. Kate almost cracked a smile, leaning against the trunk of the car. Leave it to Jo to bring tequila, she thought, giving Jo her thanks as she sipped. The tequila burned, but it was worth it. They passed the flask back and forth and a rumble sliced through the air like a knife. Amber returned with the tractor, parking with the bucket right in front of the trunk.

Kate opened the trunk and they stood around it as if in vigil, which Kate immediately hated.

“How do we do this?” Jo asked.

“We lift together and get him into the bucket-” Amber started.

“Not ‘him’. ‘It’,” Kate corrected.

“Ok. Grab the tarp and yank it out?” Jo asked, and Kate nodded. They each grabbed the tarp wrapped around the body and pulled, straining under the dead weight.

“What the hell, Kate? How did you manage this by yourself?” Jo panted as they heaved the corpse out of the trunk, allowing it to drop onto the ground with a heavy thud.

“You know the ropes I have in the garage to lift stuff into the rafters?” Kate responded as they rolled the body onto the tractor bucket.

“That’s smart,” Amber remarked when she climbed back into the tractor and fired up the engine, lifting the body off the ground. Jo and Kate hung onto the sides as Amber drove further into the property, through the dense bush and into the forest that continued for miles and miles and miles. They bumped and jostled and the body bounced when Amber hit a tree stump.

Jo’s stomach dropped when she saw an arm flung out of the tarp.

“Hey! Watch it!” She cried, and Amber grimaced.

“Why? It won’t get hurt,” Kate replied dryly, and Amber sputtered a wild, I-can’t-believe-this-is-real laugh.

Amber finally stopped in a clearing, shutting off the engine.

“You can borrow my carpet cleaner for the trunk,” Jo said to Kate.

“Thank you. Amber, Jo has booze,” Kate said to Amber.

“Ooh, gimme. I need something,” Amber said to Jo.

They shared a drink and then Amber dumped the body to the side. She began to dig, and Kate and Jo unwrapped the unfurling tarp.

“It needs to be tighter,” Kate instructed Jo as they pulled the ropes around the body, firmly cinching the tarp back in place. Amber made quick work of the hole, digging as deep as she could, making it approximately-slightly-bigger-than-a-body-sized. Jo and Kate rolled the body back onto the bucket, and Amber dumped it into the hole.

Amber got back out and they stood around the body again, but Kate hated it less than before. It was far more fitting to be around the real grave, the only grave it would ever get.

“Should we say something?” Amber wondered.

“Like what?” Jo inquired indignantly.

“I feel like we should at least say a prayer,” Amber replied.

“Why? He’s already dead,” Jo responded.

“If you want to say something, go ahead,” Kate encouraged. “I’ve got nothing left.”

They lapsed into silence, each one waiting, but nothing came to fruition. Kate wracked her brain to see if she truly had nothing left to say, and she didn’t. She said all of it before this happened. She said it all, and in the end, it meant nothing. What was there left to say except, “Alright”?

Amber and Jo nodded.

Amber covered it up, neatly and cleanly, compacting the hole until it was level with the soil around it. Jo threw some stray broken roots into the bush. They rode back to the farm the way they came, and Amber returned the tractor to the barn. Kate thanked her sisters, and drove them home.

They continued. They covered for each other, and no one questioned them. Bonded together in blood and in secret, they continued in silent allegiance to the grave in the woods on the farm, vowing to let it rest and rot forever.