"Stop, Marcus! STOP! Stop banging your freakin' truck against the table! Stop your temper tantrum!"
Dabney grabbed a gyrating and screaming Marcus and with a firm grip, vigorously shook the child until he realized that Marcus was no longer wailing…..His head no longer supported itself.
"Marcus? MARCUS! Oh! What have I done?"
Dabney gently tucked Marcus into his bed along with his teddy bear and then quickly exited his sister's apartment to join the void of the world.
***
He knew what day it was and needed no reminders. Was Marcus sleeping peacefully leaving behind his tormented world? How could he ever have had a clue as to what nature's cruelty had imposed upon him. Marcus was too young to realize that Sissy had no life of her own as her life had become all about him. Dabney was hoping against all odds that Sissy was able to bury the past and move on. Soon the past will be over. But for a few more moments, Dabney clung on to it remembering the happy years before Marcus came into their lives, when he and Sissy were not only siblings but fun loving friends...when life was enjoyment in and of itself. He had had enough days of being on the run and whisking out of his thoughts that awful moment. Dabney observed the two officers exiting the squad car and as they were crossing the street…
***
Sissy stood outside the crematorium wondering what to do with Dabney's ashes. It's been almost two decades since he fled leaving little Marcus's lifeless body alone in her apartment.
Dabney's note described his life on the lam as one hardship after another with only brief moments of joy. For Sissy, a once beloved brother will forever be a murderer and a coward. By choosing suicide over facing a jury, there would be no legal justice for Marcus.
Passing by a dumpster, Sissy paused wondering whether Dabney's ashes truly deserved a more respectful burial place than that receptacle. "Do they?", she asked herself before she chose to..