Ghost Virus

Evie was in the kitchen chopping up onions when David came home.

‘Oh, you’re back,’ she said.

David came into the kitchen and stared at her. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘What does it look like?’

Evie put down her knife. ‘David, what’s wrong? You sounded so strange on the phone. Has something upset you? Tell me.’

‘Nothing is wrong, Evie. Nothing at all, except you.’

Without saying anything else, David walked out of the kitchen and into the living-room. He picked up the remote control and switched on the television, but almost immediately he switched it off again and threw the remote control across the room, so that it clattered into the beige tiled fireplace.

Evie came into the room, wiping her hands on her apron. ‘David, what on earth’s the matter with you?’

‘You’re always bloody nagging, that’s what’s the matter with him. You think you’ve got him under your thumb, but that’s where you’re mistaken, my girl. That’s where you’re very much mistaken.’

‘“Him”?’ said Evie. ‘Who’s “him”? I’m talking about you.’

‘There you are!’ David retorted. ‘That’s how much you don’t care about him! Pretending you don’t even know who he is! Well, I think it’s time to put an end to your little game, don’t you? You should never have married him in the first place! I told him! Didn’t I tell him? But oh no, you played your tricks and he believed you! But now we can put an end to all that!’

David stalked across to Evie and loomed over her. At first she stood her ground, but his eyes were so glassy and his grin was so deranged that she took a step back, and then another.

‘David, have you been smoking something? I don’t know what’s wrong with you but I’m calling the doctor.’

‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with him, Evie. Not now, anyway. All that was ever wrong with him was you. But now that’s all going to change! Oh, yes!’

David seized both of her arms and shoved her back against the door-frame, so that she banged her head hard.

‘David!’ she screamed at him, but he shoved her again, and then again, until she managed to twist herself around and wrench her arms free. ‘What are you doing? Have you gone mad?’

David didn’t answer but tried to grab her again, ripping the sleeve of her blouse. She smacked his face, hard, and then turned around and tried to escape into the kitchen. Before she could slam the kitchen door shut, though, David collided with it and flung it wide open.

‘You trapped him, didn’t you?’ he screeched at her, as she dodged around the kitchen table. His voice was unnervingly high, like a furious woman. ‘You trapped him and then you kept him under your thumb, you selfish little bitch!’

Evie feinted to her right, but when David came around the table towards her, she ducked to her left. She had almost made it to the door when she caught her foot against the leg of one of the kitchen chairs, and stumbled. David caught up with her and gripped both of her shoulders before wrapping his left arm around her neck, almost choking her.

‘David!’ she gasped, trying to pull his arm away. ‘David, for God’s sake!’

But David pulled her even closer, until she was squeaking for breath. Then he reached across to the wooden board where she had been chopping onions and picked up the five-inch knife that she had been using. He twisted her around and then he stabbed her in the lower back, as hard as he could. The point of the knife crunched into the disc between two of her lumbar vertebrae and severed her spinal cord. She let out a muffled whinny and her knees gave way, although David kept his arm around her neck so tightly that she didn’t collapse.

‘You thought he was spineless, did you?’ David hissed in her ear, and he sounded even more like a woman than he had before. ‘You thought you were the only one with a backbone, did you? We can see about that, can’t we? We can certainly see about that!’

With that, he started to tug out the knife, although it was lodged so tightly in her spine that he had to wrestle it from side to side before it came free. Evie said nothing. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t feel her legs at all. She could only think that she was dreaming this, and it wasn’t happening. Any second now she would be back chopping onions for the beef casserole that she had been making for their supper. Any second now she would hear David’s key in the door and it would be David as he always was, cheerful and resilient, in spite of their money worries.

But David kept his choke-hold on her, and now she could feel him breathing harshly into her hair. He tensed, and then he stabbed her again, just as hard as he had the first time, but in the middle of her back this time. She flinched, and murmured, but she was in shock now, and close to blacking out.

‘Girls like you, they think they can get away with anything,’ said David. ‘They think that they can treat their husbands any way they like – as if they’re something unpleasant that they’ve trodden in. It’s time girls like you were taught a lesson, that’s all I can say.’

He pulled out the knife and then he stabbed her yet again, between the shoulder-blades. By now the back of her pale pink gingham dress was soaked in blood, and she was sagging so much that David was finding it hard to keep her upright. He stabbed her one last time in the back of the neck, and then he lowered her lifeless body onto the kitchen floor. Their tortoiseshell cat Maggie approached her and stared at her in bewilderment, and then looked up at David as if she were saying, What have you done?

David laid the bloody knife back on the chopping-board. His heart was beating hard but he felt truly vindicated now, as if a long-standing score had been settled. He left Evie lying where she was and went to the sink to wash his hands. Then, shaking the drops off them, he went through to the bedroom and sat down on the end of the bed, staring at himself in the wardrobe mirror.

You’ve wanted to punish Evie for so long, and now you’ve managed it. Justice has been done! She took him away from you even though you had nobody else to take care of you. When did she ever once think about you, and how your heart would be broken?

He stood up and went so close to the mirror that the tip of his nose was almost touching it. He couldn’t believe how much he looked like his mother. Even his mouth was turned down, in the way that her mouth always was, as if she disapproved of everything. And he had that impenetrable look in her eyes, just like the look she had, as if she were hiding how much she hated the world and everybody in it.

He would have to work out how he was going to get rid of Evie’s body, but he didn’t want to think about it now. After that surge of triumph, he was beginning to feel deeply tired, both physically and emotionally. It had been a long and difficult day, and Evie had struggled hard. Stabbing her in the spine hadn’t been easy, either: he had sprained his wrist.

He shrugged off his corduroy jacket. There was blood on the sleeves, which he would have to wash off himself, because he couldn’t take it to a dry-cleaners. How could he possibly explain it? Oh, I was butchering a pig, as you do when you’re wearing your best corduroy jacket.

Next, he reached behind him to pull the black sweater over his head, but as soon as he had grasped the back of the collar, he stopped, and let it go again. I don’t want to take this off yet. This makes me feel more secure. It reminds me so much of my mother. She used to wear it, and it helps me to understand her. It’s almost as if she’s here, with me, still alive, and with Evie gone, who else have I got?

David sat down on the bed again and took off his shoes and socks, followed by his trousers and his boxer shorts. Then he carefully lay down on the white candlewick bedspread, his knees drawn up in a foetal position, and closed his eyes.

He didn’t fall asleep, but he continued to lie there, for hour after hour, with his eyes still closed. He was pretending to be dead. Being dead meant that he was no longer responsible for anything.

Maggie came to the bedroom door and mewed because she was hungry, but all he could think was: Go away. I can’t hear you. I’m deaf to the world. I’m dead.