Short Story Sunday: A Very Good Thing

Lucas Talbot was an idiot. Sure he graduated from UCLA with a 3.7 GPA and headed off to graduate school at Stanford. He was still an idiot, and a greedy one at that.

Grandma Loraine was a multi millionaire living on her farm in Lodi. She grew grapes. She’d opened a small winery just for fun. She was loaded. At age 76 Loraine was also healthy and of sound mine.

Lucas, who always needed money knew his share of the pot would we at least a few million, if not more, when Grandma kicked the bucket. Why wait?

It was a hot summer day, too hot, but he took her hiking in the foothills. After giving Grandma a couple of Dilaudid tablets, telling her they were ibuprofen, Lucas waited. As soon as the old lady was asleep he stopped her car at a dive bar in the middle of nowhere, and put Grandma in the driver’s seat. Closed the windows. Locked the car, and left her in the 105F heat in the middle of the afternoon. He walked down the road a bit where he’d parked his own car.

Fortunately, about 30 minutes later, a couple of bikers coming out of the bar noticed the small gray haired woman in the hot car. They broke the windows and got the groggy woman out.

Unfortunately for Lucas, who like I said before was an idiot, too the keys with him so it was obvious that Loraine didn’t drive herself to the bar. 

After leaving Loraine drugged out of her mind and locked in a hot car, Lucas walked down the road about half a mile where his girlfriend Ashley waited for him in her 1993 Honda Civic.

As Lucas opened the door Ashley said, “Sorry it is kind of hot in here. The air conditioner needs service.”

Lucas just kissed her and smiled. “No problem sweet cheeks. I have someplace we can cool off.” 

They drove for about twenty minutes then Lucas told Ashley to turn down a road into a park. About a half mile in was a large pond, and no other cars in the parking lot.

“Nobody comes here during the week Ash,” he said with a dazzling smile. “I thought we’d have a little fun before we get to business.”

“Business?” Ashley asked.

Lucas didn’t respond.

Down by an isolated part of the pond they stripped naked and took a swim. Then they had sex under the trees on an air mattress Lucas had asked Ashley to bring with her.

What happened next was beyond anything Ashley ever expected. What she expected was a proposal, or at least for him to say I love you. What she got had nothing to do with love or romance.

Lucas grabbed his backpack and pulled out a gun. Ashely mouthed the words what the fuck.

“You look so beautiful Ashley,” he said to her. “You’ve got the hottest body I’ve ever seen. And damn girl, nobody can grind it like you can.”

Ashley stood there hot, naked, and pissed off. “What are you going to do with that gun Lucas.”

“I want you to shoot me.”

“What? Why would I shoot you?”

“Just in the shoulder baby. Don’t look so shocked. Do you want to help me spend millions of dollars and live the life you always dreamed of or what?”

“I don’t understand.”

“My grandma is dead in her car about 30 miles down the road by Jack’s Place, you know that dive bar down by Adler Creek? I want you to knock me around then shoot me so it will look like I was kidnapped. That was I’ll get somewhere between five and ten million and nobody will suspect anything. It is a win win for both of us Ashley.”  

“No. I’m not shooting you. No. Fuck you Lucas. I’m leaving.”

“Fine, then I’ll tell your parents about those nasty hard core porn films you made when you were 18. All five of them.”

“There were only four. Listen Lucas, you can’t do that. I’m not from money like you are. I lost my scholarship and needed the money for college. I’m not proud of what I did, but I didn’t want to take out student loans.”

“I have clips all ready to send your dad. You know that one where you were with two guys and…”

“Fine, what do you want me to do?”

“Kick my legs and throw some rocks at me.”

Ashley pulled on some cowboy boots she had in the trunk of her car and kicked Lucas. Then she threw some two pound rocks at him. After that she pulled off the boots and got rid of the footprints. 

“Now shoot me.”

“Do you want to put some clothes on first?”

“No, it makes it more horrible if I’m naked, or as my grandma said, in the nude.”

“Did you kill your grandma?”

Lucas just smiled. “Shoot me Ashley or your dad sees everything, and I mean everything.”

“What if they trace the gun?”

“It’s an antique. It can’t be traced.”

“Where do you want me to shoot you? Leg? Side?”

“Shoulder.”

Ashley aimed and shot the gun. It grazed Lucas in the shoulder.

It stung like hell and started to bleed. He then picked up his cell phone and called 911. “A couple of guys shot me and took off with my grandma in her car. I’m bleeding.” He then gave directions. “Ashley, shoot me again, in the shoulder not a graze. I want a bullet to be pulled out of me. I want this to be serious.”

“Lucas, I can’t…”

“What will daddy think when he sees those two men doing his little girl as she groans and begs for more?”

Ashley lifted the gun again to aim and shot Lucas in the neck. Lucas fell over eyes wide open. Ashley quickly bundled up the blanket, and all traces that she had been there. On the way home she threw the gun over a cliff into a deep wooded ravine. She went home and took a shower, then turned on Netflix and opened a bottle of vodka and one of cranberry juice. She didn’t sleep until the next night. Nobody called her. She called Lucas and left a message asking him if he wanted to go see a movie. Then she didn’t call his phone again.

Lucas was found by a couple of local sheriff’s officers. After the body was packed up and brought to the morgue, they’d found his grandma’s keys and wondered how she’d been carjacked without any keys.

Loraine recovered and a few weeks later had a beer with the two men who’d rescued her. She gave them both $10,000 each in college funds for their kids. 

Lucas was buried in a family plot after a large funeral where people spoke about what a promising life he had ahead of him. At the reception afterwards there were hushed whispers about how arrogant and selfish he was. Ashley showed up and said a few words about how she’d miss Lucas and how he’d looked forward to graduate school. 

Ashley went on to graduate school at USC in Los Angeles and never spoke about Lucas again.

In the fall after the grape harvest, Loraine sat down on her deck with a bottle of wine and thought about Lucas. She never did like the little shit. There was definitely something off about him. He could have ruled the world with his looks and charm, but he just couldn’t wait. Oh well. 

Then she picked up the phone and punched in a number. “Hello, Ashley dear. I just wanted to say thank you. You don’t have to answer or even say you know what it is for. Again, thank you and bless you child. You did a good thing.” 

“But how? What?” Ashley said in shock.

“You’re a smart young woman. You’ll go far. I admire girls like you. Goodbye Ashley. Have a wonderful life.” Then she hung up the phone not waiting for Ashley’s response.

Loraine finished her glass of wine and smiled. Yes, it was a very good thing.

~ endA

~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman