Commentary On Esme's Murder

1976.

The basement. The old woman was there.

But this was like an earlier memory, because there was Bianca, tied and beaten. She looked like she would years later when she would appear to Angela in her kitchen and hide from Father.

The old woman was in the back where the old claw-foot tub sat in the corner. The ancient bruja had a child under one bony arm and was slicing his throat with one long claw-like nail. Blood poured into the tub like a fount.

Esme had set up a record player near the tub which was playing the ever-faithful “Dancing Queen” on it. This was the year the record came out. Esme must have kifed it from the kid whose throat she was slitting. She dabbed some of the hot blood on her cheeks, as if she were applying rouge.

“Tell me, Bianca. Do

It wasn’t sterile, but what did that matter now? Was Bianca going to get an infection? She ran back and as easily as she could, cut into her sister’s stomach, giving her a crazy, sloppy C-Section. She’d luckily missed any of the baby’s parts and pulled the child free of it’s mother, covered in blood and placental fluid.

It was a girl.

She held her, which was difficult because of the vernix making her so slippery. Viviana cut the umbilical cord with the large machete and tied off the remaining cord with some twine.

Taking some rags from the garage and using the hose from the house near the garden, she managed to clean the baby up and get her wrapped in an old blanket. Food would come, but first she needed to take care of Bianca.

It took the better part of two hours, but she got a decent enough hole dug and placed her sister inside of it. She put the small child in her sister’s arms for a moment, so she could hold the daughter she’d never know. Taking the baby back and laying her down between some cushions nearby, Viviana buried her sister, crying the entire time. She put the other half of the key in the grave with her. For