April Showers

Rob stretched and looked out on his front yard from the window over the kitchen sink. He loved the
rain, there was no better weather to do his kind of work in. When the sun was out staying inside always
made him feel lazy. It gave him a stale feeling, like watching daytime TV or suffering a vicious
hangover. But on the days when it was wet and frigid outside, like today, it felt only natural to remain
indoors.
He gulped down the remnants of his morning coffee, and took a last look out at the grizzly morning.
Perhaps that was the reason he had chosen a city with such a precipitous climate this time. He could
really focus here, with the temptation of sunshine so far removed.
He turned and went to the hallway coat closet where he could select a CD from May's collection. This
girl had some taste. He had yet to know a woman who's musical interests so closely paralleled his own,
and he liked that music was something they could enjoy together. He settled on James Taylor, and
turned the volume up high. As he reached the basement's entrance at the end of the hallway, the music
began to echo through the walls of the large house. Rob knew this one and sang along.
“somethin' in the way she moves”
As he drifted dreamily down each wooden step, he hoped she would join in.
“I feel fine every time she's around me, she's around me now, almost all the time.”
He rounded the bottom of the staircase into the unfinished workroom, and her eyes met him with a
disappointing silence.
“And how is the most beautiful girl in the world this morning?”
May remained quiet as he sauntered across the concrete floor to greet her.
“What seems to be the trouble miss? You know our project's almost finished.”
Rob was getting the cold shoulder.
“fine, be that way.” he exhaled. “I can just finish up on my own.”
His aprons were hung on hooks above the large utility sink on the basement's far wall.
He selected the cleanest of them. It had a large #1 on the front and exclaimed “worlds best grandma”
below it in rose colored calligraphy.
“what do you think?” he modeled the apron for May, who didn't seem to appreciate the irony.
“Okay then.” Rob extracted the vinyl work gloves from their place draped over the sink, and rolled
them on up to his elbows. He flipped the light switch and rolled the metal tool tray behind him to his
work table at the room's center. The fluorescent lamp that hung above his head blinked unsteadily
before remaining lit. May let out a guttural groan once the table became fully illuminated.
“Oh hey, I thought you were cross at me.” He kept his eyes focused forward as he chided her.
Rob lifted the saran wrap from its position over the piece. He found it worked incredibly well to keep
everything from drying out. Even the raw materials he used remained slick and pliable as long as they
were protected from the air. He bent closer and inhaled deeply, that thick copper smell never failed to
intoxicate him.
“Now, I know it doesn't look like much at present. But now that we've given the formaldehyde a chance
to fully penetrate, we can fill it out a bit.” Rob removed the stuffing composition from the shelf below
his work table and began scooping thumb fulls into the empty eyesockets. He packed the combination
of flour paste and hot melted glue into the empty holes until they were full, before using the aluminum
device he had fashioned to round out the cheeks.
“these are the hardest to get to, but if we enter through the nostril then this thing bends around the bone
like a charm.”
Rob glanced to May who stared forward blankly. He sighed, It was becoming more difficult to deny
that they might not work out after all. In the weeks they had been together, she had only become more
sullen by the day.
What was with the women in this country? They spouted off endlessly about how progressive and
tolerant they were from the safety of an internet chatroom, but bring them into the light and ask them to
be TRULY open minded, and he was met with nothing but fear and disdain.
He had hoped he could teach her that true art didn't just imitate life. That it had to be made from real
life. He wanted for her to learn the skill of preservation and then for them to teach others together. But
she'd shown a distaste for the art form which made it painfully obvious that she wasn't right for this
work. Rob had yet to find the one that was.
May let out a choking sound and he looked over to watch her squirm. She seemed to be vomiting. The
cloth gag kept most of it contained inside her mouth, though some leaked from her bottom lip and
clung to her in clots. Rob scooted his stool closer to observe her. She writhed away from him, jamming
the back of her thin frame up against the radiator violently in an effort to distance herself.
Rob watched as she choked and sputtered on the foul smelling expulsion; he was becoming gradually
aroused. She knew just how to distract him from work. He watched the over-sized nightshirt work itself
up over her panties as she writhed. Her bare feet slid out from under her as she scrambled to push
herself even further away from him, and rob watched as the milky white of her inner thigh was exposed
He thought about pulling the gag away to free her airways before she lost consciousness. But, since it
had to happen eventually, he thought maybe he should let her do it on her terms.
She was a willful woman. In her life before him she seemed a power to be reckoned with. Angelique
Vasquez, isn't that what the police reports had called her? His May, he fell in love with the way she
knew what she wanted. He adored her so that he had even brought some of her things along in an effort
to please her. Music she liked, her perfume, He had never thought to do that with any of the others.
Rob knew she appreciated the sentiment, Even if she didn't say so.
And so now, maybe he could just let her slip away on her own terms. And once she had given her body,
he would take it and make a bust unlike any before. Like her, it could be truly one of a kind.
She looked at him then, and as a single tear slid from the corner of her emerald eye she began to still.
He knew she was thankful as she convulsed a last time. His may, What a lovely piece she would make.
Like the others before, he would make her beauty eternal.
No one was ready for his work yet, but he could keep building up his collection until they were. And
once that time came then she would be his star.
Rob turned back to the table and began to suture the various incisions he'd made when filling his latest
work. It was a fine piece, he thought he might name it April Showers.
As he placed the finishing touches Rob thought about where he might go next. The search for him
seemed to be hitting closer to home. He wondered where June might find him and laughed when the
idea struck him. Perhaps, like the song said, he had Carolina on his mind.