About What Matters

by Dallas Coleman
20 pages / 4300 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

When Toby finally comes home, it’s only to see his momma one last time before she passes on. He’s not sure if he’s happy or furious that Malachi shows up to lend a hand, especially since Toby has never found Malachi particularly helpful. He and Malachi have a bond that goes beyond the bounds of human lives, though, and Toby might just have to learn how to balance dancing with the devil and loving an angel.

Sample

"She's not got a lot of time left, Bubba, I'm sorry."

He looked down at his big sister and nodded. "I hear you. Least I made it."

She'd been crying; she smelled like salt water and sickness, and Toby forced himself not to wince when he leaned down, brushed his lips over the top of her head. "Love you, Tia."

"I know. Go on, you have to. Tell her goodbye; that's what she's waiting on." Her hands were rough, dry, too used for a thirty year old woman, but Tia'd been the strong one, the one taking care.

He couldn't. He wasn't one to stand in one place long enough for anything as permanent as roots.

He headed into the room, trying his best to ignore the beeping and the whooshing and the smell of dying. "Momma."

"Tobias. You came."

"Told you I would." Even as much as he hated fucking Mesquite, he was here.

She nodded and he met her eyes, something inside him screaming and rejoicing all at once as he did. It was still her, still all her – nothing pointed or wild or screaming -- but it was like watching a flame burning her inside. Her eyes were huge, dark, her face sunken all around them. "I'm glad. My boy. How long's it been since you came to see me?"

He nodded, tried not to be ashamed of the fact that he didn't know. He couldn't remember. "I…"

"Hush. You don't know. I do. It's how it works, being a momma. You staying safe out there? Doing your work?"

"I am. Every day. You know that, too." He'd left home twenty years ago, chased by something at his heels, and he'd run for three years, until Malachi found him and taught him how to stop and fight it. From that day on, he'd been on the job. Malachi's right hand man and sometimes fuckbuddy.

"I do." Her fingers reminded him of a spider's legs, wrapping around his wrist and he looked over at her again, looked hard, long enough that she shook him. "Stop it, son. I ain't gone over. I been washed in the blood."

He snorted. "Shit, Momma, knowing Daddy, I don't doubt that."

She swatted him, chuckled. "Things happen for a reason, son. I swear to you."