The gallows man hums a lullaby for Addie, even though she’s already pretending to be asleep on her bed. His face is cloaked in shadows and he licks his lips in the darkness; his breath is shallow and quick. This isn’t his first time, but his viscera stirs as though it were. Anticipation swells, anxious, but his hands are steady, taut as daddy-long-leg strides and ready to tamper. The ends of his fingernails thread her hair away from the flesh of her neck, unfastening a noose. She breathes in, and he slides onto her bed.
Addie (A cloud), rolls softly onto her (puffy) side. Her eyelids tighten (in a field of mushy clouds). Heavy hands reach around and press against her chest (and if you look closely); one slips under her flannel (you can see). It rubs the tips of her nipples rough (they’re all dirty), and the other claws between her legs. Her down there hurts (because they’re filled with dirt and sand) and part of her wishes her underwear was off (like at the playground after rainy days) because it’s bunching up. Her arms are positioned behind her (where there’s toys to play with). She bites on her lips (so long as you don’t look down because you know there’s dark puddles there), and makes sure not to breathe too hard (and you don’t want to get soggy or cold) or else she knows her arm’ll get squeezed, maybe even pinched (so you just keep playing). The gallows man’s finish is soft (and only your hands get a little wet) and anti-climatic (but that’s why the clouds are dirty). He buttons up her flannel (because you keep using them to wipe yourself dry and clean.) and shovels the blanket back over her body.
The gallows man closes the door behind him; flat faces follow his sock-soft footsteps on the cold hardwood floor. In his bedroom, his wife is stuffed with earplugs, covered in a blue satin sleep-mask, and deep in a prescription coma. He crawls into bed beside her, closes his eyes, and tries to ward off the thoughts vying to tear into his old cocoon, but he is trapped, has been since boyhood, in a web woven by his own father, and so he tosses in his sleep, fighting for comfort, and the silk ties bind tighter.
The gallows man snaps awake. An earthquake rumbles, threatening his home. He checks on his wife; she snorts and snores.
He stumbles to Addie’s room. Her eyes are wide at first, white with fear in the dark, but they shut as the gallows man steps inside. He lifts her and carries her out into the hall-closet doorway. She wraps her arms around his neck, breathes in the light perspiration in the hollow of smooth skin at the bottom of his throat. They huddle, wait for all the trembles to pass, and afterwards he returns Addie to her bed, her eyes still closed, no peeking.
In the morning, Addie’s mother enters the room. “Wake up,” she says, and leaves the door wide open.
Addie yawns with heavy lids. She puts on a shirt, shorts, socks and shoes, and never once looks in the mirror. For breakfast, in the jaundiced morning light of the linoleum kitchen, she eats her cereal alone. Her mother is feeding the cat; the gallows man has already left for the factory.
At school, the teacher is writing about denominators on the chalkboard. Addie already knows this stuff pretty good — that the numbers on the bottom should all belong to the same family. The recess bell rings and outside the door some of the other kids start talking about the earthquake. One of them, Amir, a boy with a scruffy neck and gaps in his teeth, asks Addie if she felt it. She tells him she didn’t. She tells him she’s a very heavy sleeper. She assures him that she’s always been able to sleep through just about anything.
John Lander reads and writes out of sunny Southern California, where he has become something of a balcony aficionado.
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17 Responses to “GALLOWS • by John Lander”
Comments
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April 4th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Sorry,I just kind of don’t get it.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:42 am
A pedophile isn’t a bicycling fanatic.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:04 am
I tried to understand the second paragraph. I read it different ways (all the way through; reading only the parenthetical bits; reading only the non-parenthetical bits), but I still couldn’t make it “work” for me as a reader.
My guess is that you’re trying to contrast the father’s predatory behavior with his protective behavior in the earthquake scene. But the fact that he remains the “gallows man” throughout the piece muddies that conclusion.
The term “gallows man” may be a cultural or literary reference with which I’m not familiar, and which might explain this story’s point?
In the end, it’s all a muddle for me, and in the absence of real insight into character, a distasteful one at that.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:18 am
The parenthetical parts confused me (unless they were the child’s thoughts that enabled her to get through the assault), but all in all, this is a very sad piece. The father is, as has been said, predatory and abuses his child, yet seeks to protect her (not the whole family) during the earthquake. Some of the confusing bits aside, this was a well written look into the dark side of humanity.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Dark and troubling, not an easy read, but a nicely complex one.
April 4th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I too was confused by the parentheticals, but as I read on and realized what was going on–I felt that aha moment that some stories and novels give you, that jolt of dawning realization (The Hours and Middlesex come to mind…possible confusion offered in both these excellent novels). I love feeling that “aha” moment so for me this is a five.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:25 am
i really enjoyed this story. Not light and fluffy to be sure, but very well written. For anyone who didn’t know what the parentical thoughts were, they were Addie’s thoughts during the rape.
I particularlarly liked that the man was potrayed as being so conflicted that he could do something so horrible to his daughter and yet go and hold her during the earthquake, as though he really believes he’s a good father.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:12 am
The “gallows man” is never called “father” or “dad” in relation to the girl, although the mother is labeled as such. The girl is possibly not his daughter, and wherever the story took place, polygamy may be legal; she may be his other wife. All we know of his young second wife (if that’s what she is) is that she needs a bath, all we know of the wife-mother that she wears earplugs and sleep mask so she will not be disturbed, and of the “gallows man” that he still carries resentment against his father. Why? And why is he called the “gallows man”? The part that is carefully detailed and focused upon is what the “gallows man” did with his fingers while sharing the younger girl’s bed.
I agree with Bob that the story is generally distasteful – without a redeeming purpose or further explication to excuse what might be considered smut which has nothing to do with the marriage’s possible legality. I ought to mention that aside from the theme (whatever that is) the story is well written. A more fully complete explanation might turn out to be harsher to read, but less a writing of smut.
April 4th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
A very strange story about a very distasteful event, and yet one that, unfortunately, happens somewhere every night. Sad and depressing.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
No question this is one of the darkest pieces I’ve ever seen on EDF or anywhere else. Patricia’s comments summed it up for me. Hard to plug in all the complications of an abusive parent in one 1000 word story, but this one manages: the bitterness toward his own father (studies clearly show abuse perpetuates itself through generations), the wife who shuts herself off so completely she refuses to acknowlege what is happening under their roof (if Addie told her mother, does anyone suspect she would be believed), the abusive parent who still has other, normal, protective parental feelings. Really well done and its not a POV I would want to stay in for a micro flash, let alone a story of this length.
The parantheticals are going to be a matter of reader preference. It’s the style the writer has chosen, and I won’t quibble with it.
Nothing more to add, except Addie is clearly the man’s daughter: why else would he be humming a lullaby? And if she’s in school where there’s a recess, that pegs her age pretty solidly somewhere in the K-5 range.
–John
April 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
It blends into prose-poetry at times, and in a good way. Your alliteration, John, was nicely handled. For instance,, the “gallows man’s” hands imagery was excellent, with “daddy-long legs” bookended with the alliteration of “taut” and “tamper.” In any case, the meaning was clear, the horror real, and the diction first-rate.
April 5th, 2009 at 5:39 am
JohnOBX – Maybe as he strode in on his spider-like daddy long legs he was humming under his breath “The Lullaby of Old Broadway.”
April 6th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Without doubt this piece covers a dark, distasteful and complex subject, but it is written with skill, daring and above all, humanity, that I considered it a five. The parentheses were at first confusing, but explained by the end – an interesting device.
Oscar
April 6th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Vivid imagery, but neither cutting edge nor daring, merely taking advantage of freedom of expression to put a veneer of “art” on a subject that is not complex, just unrelentingly abhorrent. Sadly, this sketch endorses victimization by not moving beyond it nor even hinting at solutions. Perhaps, extended or re-crafted as a story it might still redeem itself.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:01 am
TW, I agree that it is “unrelentingly abhorrent” in its content, in the same way as colonial slavery was presented in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” I don’t see how you are supporting your assertion that the piece “endorses victimization.” Furthermore, are you arguing that art must serve only to overtly and specifically address and work toward social change? In that case, Conrad’s piece, like Lander’s, showed us the horror, it was up to the reader to engage it.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
As a sketch, a non-story, it doesn’t report-expose-further anything that we didn’t already know. Uphold the deviant as a hero — THAT would be daring. This isn’t. This is exploiting something foul. And I can’t compare flash fiction, no matter how well done, with the nuances of Conrad’s novel.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
TW, you have a good point with regard to “Gallows” as a sketch. It was something I hadn’t considered until your note. No one, protagonist or antagonist, changes as a result of the conflict. It is indeed a character sketch. I still do not think, however, that the primary purpose of art is to fix society or even “hint” at solutions. It can, and often does, but it is not necessary. As far as flash fiction and nuances, what about Alice Walker’s “Flowers?”