Emmett89

The perpetual sweat of a southern man dripped into the dirt. He wiped his brow with a dirty left hand, and left a smear of sand, and soil across his forehead. The sweat that didn’t end up in the ground or on his arm, slipped into his eyes. The salt tore at his eyes, he blinked rapidly in an attempt to get rid of it.

He looked out at the land, and saw nothing but barren land. Not one inch of a crop had sprung up through the dirt this year. Not even a weed had fought its way through the tough earth to appear on his farm. Day after day after day, the man woke up before dawn, and worked until his back grew hot and stiff. Every day, including the Sabbath, he would work the land.

Prayers were sent up by the man every morning and twice on Sunday that something might grow, anything. He’d finish his breakfast, and open the screen door to go outside, and before stepping down off the porch into the dirt, he’d stop and close his eyes and put his head down, and ask God for help.

Help never came. Eli Horner blamed it on his brother. Adam Horner, the murderer. Eli’s own brother had killed 2 men. The injustice he had done put the entire Horner family into God’s bad favor, Eli had figured. After Adam put a bullet in two men’s heads, every man (and woman who was associated with a Horner man) with Horner blood, had been cursed, by God himself.

Adam Horner, convicted of double homicide 5 years ago, was set to be executed in the next year. Once he gets put in the electric chair, and sent straight to hell, the Horner family will be put right in the eyes of God. Adam had shamed himself to Eli, and had more or less been sent out of the family in Eli’s eyes anyways.

Eli’s mother, God rest her soul, would feel the same as Eli, son or not, Adam had killed innocent people. Nobody is that forgiving. Eli and Adam’s father, however, talked about Adam everyday in a good light. About how much he missed him, how smart he was, that he could find out a way to have something grow on this land. Yes, their father would say, Adam can do anything.

At 30, Eli was very much a grown man, and almost every other grown man around town was married and had kids. Eli lived at home with his father, who never left the property. Eli himself had spread the rumor that he still stayed home was because his father was distraught over the recent death of his wife, and the unfortunate news concerning Adam Horner. Eli, was staying home because, (now keep this to yourself) he was worried about the mental condition of his father, and didn’t want to risk his father taking his own life.

While Eli did in fact worry about this possible scenario, and that it would further poison the Horner blood lines, the real reason Eli was still living with his father, was Eli wasn’t very fond of people. People always looked at Eli oddly. Everything Eli said seemed to leave a bitter taste in their mouths. You need to think about stuff before you say it, his father would tell him. Don’t say it unless it’s worth saying.

Women didn’t take to Eli very well, and Eli never gave any the chance to take to him very well either. He said odd things at awkward times, things out of the blue that turned women off to him at once. Once when Eli was a little boy his mother had taken him to a doctor in Macon. He had a disorder. A disorder, not a disease. If it ain’t a disease, than you can cure it Eli, only you though is what his mother had told him. Tourette’s is what the doctor had told his mother to call it. It made him say things that he didn’t mean, or know what they meant.

While his mother was alive he had been able to curb it, his mother had in one way or another had been able to keep it subdued, simply by talking to him everyday. By talking a lot, the words hadn’t been able to back up inside him. Now, with nobody to talk to the words backed up inside him, and would come tumbling out of him like water at a dam. He had stopped going to town to buy things during the busy parts of the day, as not to risk saying something dirty or disheveling to someone just nodding hello as they walked by each other on the sidewalk.

Eli went to buy the various things he needed only at the earliest hours of the day, so the only person that he talked too in most cases was the cashier. He’d keep quiet, and only smile politely when the cashier told him how much money Eli owed him. Then after receiving his change, and the cashier told him to have a nice day, Eli would nod and walk out of the door, get in his truck and not have to worry about having an outburst, until the next time he had to go to the store.

The last 11 years had been the longest of Eli’s life. His mothers death, which was 11 years ago, obviously had a correlation. Adam was 7 years younger than Eli, and while he had always been rambunctious, the death of his mother shifted him into a new trouble making gear. While their mother was still breathing, the worst he had ever done was sneak up on a girl about his age and lift their dress, and run off giggling. As he got older and the girls did as well (gettin’ tits Adam and his friends would say) he would occasionally trip conveniently hands first onto a young ladies budding breasts.

His mother had scolded him of course. You can’t touch a woman whenever you want to, Adam. His father had almost been understanding of what Adam liked to do. Boys are supposed to touch women, damnit. I sure wish Eli would grab a tit or two, sure would make me feel better about him.
Once his mother had died, Adam’s transgressions had multiplied. Instead of just his hands becoming a little adventurous, other parts of his body had followed suit. He never raped a woman, but often times he’d browbeat a woman into having sex with him. With various threats, he often convinced the women to do it. They were never very enthusiastic about it, but that was no issue with Adam, he got to come hands free, and that’s all that mattered to him.

The women that didn’t respond to his menacing, that he would spread rumors that she was whore, and other such non-flattering names, often put Adam in a desperate situation. He’d then resort to offering them money. The ones that refused that he would let leave, but he would warn them to never tell anyone about this, or she’d regret it forever.

As a last recourse, he’d find the women that he knew for sure would accept his money. He never raped a woman though.


Eli blamed the rebirth of his issue on the same thing as everything else, Adam’s sins. Once Adam had been put to death, God would find no more fault with the Horner family, and he would take away the Tourette’s, and Eli could find a woman, and everything could be like it was supposed to be.
The days were counting down, inside a month now, until Adam sat down for the final time. When Eli got a letter.

Im coming home. Im off scot free. Will tell more when I come home.
Adam.

Emmett89