ezine
baby
HOME  ABOUT  FICTION  POETRY  ART  SUBMIT  NEWS  MORBID  ZINES  ODDITIES  BEWARE  CONTACT  PLAGUE  FRIGHTS  BIANCA.BARNETT  BOOKS  FILMS  TIPS
Bruce Memblatt

The August Editor's Pick Writer is Bruce Memblatt

You can email Bruce at: bmemblatt@aol.com

Bruce Memblatt

BEARD
by Bruce Memblatt

It could be heard down a dark Mexican street: the sounds of children running home echoed across the broken pavement. Allegra always says Juarez is the worst place in the world.

The only light shining on Dorado Street that night came from Garcia’s shop.

The hollow crack of gunshots was never far behind. Stray bullets flew all the time. Somewhere a guitar strummed a sad tune.

Garcia’s shop was busy because Allegra, Garcia and Mariana were hunched around the new arrival just out of the crate. “No one breathes a word about this child, not till I say its okay, do you hear me, Allegra?” Garcia said, scratching his beard, placing a hammer down on the counter next to the crate. There seemed to be crates everywhere. The light was dim, and dirty, diffused by dust and years of neglect.

In the background, an old radio cranked out mariachi music.

“Don’t worry, Garcia,” Allegra said, “my lips are sealed.” She pursed her lips together as though giving proof. Black bangs limped across her forehead. Garcia had always thought her wide eyes were intense enough to make up for her plain face. It didn’t matter.

Mariana, suggestively leaning on the counter, ran her hands through her hair, grinned and said, “That is the ugliest child I’ve ever seen.”

Allegra, her head bowed, her eyes planted on the infant and said, “Dear God, I’ve never seen a baby with a beard before. There will surely be hell to pay for this, Garcia.”

And somewhere inside, Garcia knew Allegra was right, but he easily dismissed the warning bell in his head, because that is what Garcia always did before telling himself, This time, things will be different. His eyes met Allegra’s and he said, “I won her in a card game.”

“Tell me, how does a person win a human being in a bet?” Mariana said, tilting her head, provocatively edging her tongue around her crimson lips.

“Nobody wants her.”

Garcia’s eyes took in the strange thing in the cradle on the floor beneath the counter: the knobbed bald head, the nose that hooked, the weary eyes that should belong to a one-hundred-year-old, not an infant, the pale hands that wrinkled, with fingers that nervously reached for him like spiders, and finally the beard that covered her chin and scratched along the side of her small face.

He could barely stand to look at her, spider monkey, yet at the same time he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He prayed that was the ingredient that would attract people for miles, and empty their peasant pockets.

Allegra, standing next to Garcia, picked the baby up from its small wooden cradle held her up high, and said, “I had a dream like this once, Garcia, not about a baby, but  about an angel.” Her eyes intensified. “I dreamt an angel came to me and it was the ugliest creature I’d ever seen—hideous. I ran from it, but it wouldn’t stop chasing me. Finally it called to me and said nothing is as it appears, and then it vanished, and then I felt myself fall into a pit of snakes. I suddenly woke sweating, breathing heavy, my heart racing like a greyhound.”

Mariana cried, pounding on the counter, “Put that baby down! She is frightening me! You all frighten me!” She paused and tightened the straps of her blouse around her shoulders, and Garcia noticed she was looking at him like he was the devil himself.

Then Garcia said, “Marianna, with any luck this ugliest baby in the world will change all our lives and bring us wealth.”

“That baby will bring us nothing but trouble!” Mariana said, spitting on the floor, marching towards the door, before slamming it behind her, her red dress nearly caught in her fury.

Why was he still attracted to her after all these years? His wife’s best friend. He turned to his wife Allegra and said, while she placed the bearded baby back in its cradle, “Don’t worry about her, Allegra; it will be all right. We will all be all right.”

*****

It wasn’t long before the moon turned into a sliver in the sky.

Garcia left their bed to check on the baby. The strange child slept downstairs in the store because Allegra didn’t want her spending the night in their room. Afraid she’d have the dream about the angel again, Garcia agreed.

The tiny apartment above the store was hot even at night. The wrought iron windows were always left open. Allegra kept flower boxes on the windowsills. Small sunflowers and lilies grew there. At night their shadows climbed against the windows like tiny monsters.

Allegra should know there are no angels left in Juarez, Garcia told himself while he made his way down the stairs to the store.

When Garcia reached the bottom of the slanted, old wooden steps, he thought he heard something: a door shutting or a window closing. Just a breeze, he sighed, as he made his way through the arched doorway that opened up into the store.

The lights were still on; they left the lights on for the child. Garcia could hear her snores as he crept to the cradle across a dusty cement floor.

Garcia gazed at the ugly child and thought about the upcoming day. When the sun came up over Juarez, they would sweep and clean the place from top to bottom. They’d put a sign out announcing the bearded baby to the neighborhood. Then they’d place the hairy thing in the window and watch the crowds gather. The sign would read:

ONLY SEVENTY PESOS FOR A PICTURE
WITH THE ONE AND ONLY
RAREST BABY IN THE WORLD!
THE BEARDED BABY!

Soon they’d be rich.

His hands reached for the infant. Her eyes stayed shut. She still snored, even as Garcia wrapped his hands around her coarse neck.  Not the skin of a child, but of a snake, he told himself, but it was important to keep the thing healthy.

He felt a sudden grip on his arm from behind, and the baby nearly dropped from his surprised fingers. Mariana’s voice came, “You give me that child; I’m taking her back to wherever she came from before we are all cursed!”

Garcia grabbed his breath and the child tighter, relieved it was just Mariana and not a junkie who crawled through the window in the middle of the night, or something unknown and dangerous that the strange child conjured up.

He pulled his arm from her and he cried, “What are you doing here? You stop this, Mariana, right now!”

But she wouldn’t listen. As if she was possessed, she grabbed his arm again. Her lips tightened, her eyes glared, and she said, “No, Garcia! For a change, you listen to me! This child must go back!”

Garcia quickly put the baby back into the cradle. He knew how things could careen out of control when Mariana lost her temper. He had to stop her before she woke up Allegra. He tightened his robe around his hefty waist, and he grabbed Mariana from behind.

“Let go of me, Garcia!”

He clenched his teeth. “You listen to me, this baby isn’t going anywhere. This thing is going to make us rich!”

“Let go of me, now!”

“No!”

“You mean she will make you rich, don’t you, Garcia? But she won’t, you fool. There are freak babies all over Mexico, so what is one more?”

“This child is different! I can sense it.”

“All you can sense is your own greed; maybe Allegra’s angel will come and chase you too, and lead you down a snake pit. I thought I knew you!” She spat on the floor.

The baby’s aging eyes spun open and she began to cry. Garcia could see its hands shaking in its cradle; its mouth, surrounded by hair, opened wide. The shrill sound of her cries ran over Garcia’s skin like needles.

He called to Mariana, “Look what you’ve done!”

“Oh please, Garcia; all babies cry. Even this creature! Now let go of me!” Mariana said, and then she bit down on the arm Garcia had wedged under her neck.

“You fucking bitch!” He cried. His arms flailed while Mariana lunged for the cradle.

Suddenly they saw Allegra entering the room, tightening her robe, and shouting, “What is going on here?”

The child’s cries grew louder.

Allegra didn’t wait for an answer. She ran for the cradle, nearly knocking Garcia and Mariana to the dirty cement floor. She picked up the baby, rubbed her chin against its scratchy beard, and began to sing Iba un pollito para la escuela. And then she whispered, “Hush, niña,” while she cradled the ugly infant in her arms.

The florescent light above sizzled.

Outside another gunshot aimlessly broke into the warm night.

Garcia and Mariana, stunned, stared at Allegra quietly until she pointed at Mariana and said, “What are you doing here with my husband at this hour?”

Mariana held her head high as if she was Saint Joan, and she said, “I am taking this unfortunate infant back to where it came from before we all live to regret it.”

Allegra stuck her tongue out at Mariana and cradled the child tighter against her chest. “I don’t believe you, Mariana; you are using this baby as an excuse to be with my husband. I thought you were my best friend, but I was wrong!”

It was then Garcia knew that he had to say something, but what?  No matter what he said, he was screwed, so he just blurted out calmly as he could, “Listen, it’s late. Why don’t we all just go to bed and talk about this in the morning?”

“Shut up, Garcia, I blame you too!” Allegra shouted, glaring at Garcia. Then she quickly turned her attention to the child in her breast, “Please stop crying, little one.” She whispered, but the child felt the tension around her and cried louder. Allegra handed the baby to Garcia saying, “Put her back in her cradle, maybe she will fall asleep there.”

Its beard braced against Garcia’s skin and he winced.

Mariana’s high heels clicked against the cement like a solider, and then she cried, her eyes blazing at Allegra, “How dare you accuse me of trying to take your husband! How dare you! You think I want him? You can have that fat, bearded man. I’d rather sleep with that ugly baby them him! You are both crazy! Both you and him, and his get ‘rich quick’ schemes. You both need help! What was it the last time, Garcia, remember?”

Garcia stood up from the cradle, embarrassed, bowed his head and softly said “Magic Monkeys.”

“Yes, they were supposed to bring people luck, but all they brought were fleas!” Mariana shook her fists.

Then Allegra, seething, stepped toward Mariana and said, “At least he tries!” And then she pulled her hand back and slapped Mariana across the face, and cried, “You whore!”

Marianna brought her hand to her own chin and ran it along her skin, feeling the pain Allegra caused, and then she screamed, “Fuck you, you bitch!” before she lunged at Allegra.

Things were careening out of control like Garcia knew they would, though he was wrong, he didn’t think it would be Allegra that lost it, but Mariana. Allegra must have been jealous of Mariana for a long time, and he must have done things to encourage her rage, little things that he didn’t even notice at the time; little things that must have been big things to her, and now those feelings were releasing like steam escaping from a gusher when it was just about to blow, and they would all pay, he was sure of it.

The child was now literally screaming. Garcia had to do something before all of Dorado Street awakened. He’d have to calm Allegra down.

He leapt toward Allegra, and grabbing her arms, he cried, “I’m so sorry.”

“Let go of me. I will make her pay.” Allegra cried, but Garcia certain he knew what he was doing, pulled Allegra away from Mariana and held her tighter.

Then Mariana shook her hands and said, “Good! Don’t let go of her, you hold that  crazy bitch so I can take that baby, and get it out of here and that will be the end of that!” Then she turned and glared at Allegra and said, “Where is your angel now!”

Allegra reeled in Garcia’s arms. He could barely contain her. And now he had to stop Mariana from taking the child. He had to stop them both, but he only had two hands. 

He didn’t think. He released Allegra’s hands, and before he could catch his breath, he saw Allegra leap for the drawer under the counter and pull out a knife. And then in one horrible instant, he watched her take that knife and stab Mariana in the chest.

Garcia screamed “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” and tears released from his eyes like rain.

He watched Mariana’s blood pool on the cement floor.

Why couldn’t he see this coming? He released Allegra’s hand to stop Mariana from taking the baby, not to do this unforgivable thing. Mariana was right; they were all cursed and he brought it all on.

Little evil things that built up over the years that he released when he released Allegra’s hands.

He heard Allegra’s screams mingle with the child’s in an unbearable cacophony, and then the lights began to flicker and he heard something else. He heard the cradle rock.

His eyes quickly moved away from Mariana and the blood on the floor to the cradle. It was shaking wildly.

Allegra stood above the cradle. She was staring at it too, gasping, but her face looked different. She had stopped screaming. Allegra’s face was white in shock.

Garcia leapt from the floor and stood next to Allegra above the cradle and he saw it too. He couldn’t speak, or move. Words wouldn’t come.

Just beneath them the baby was flailing, wrenching, jerking.

Then, out of its bearded mouth came something black and long and slimy. Its infant cries morphed into grunts and moans, and the growth that was coming out of its mouth suddenly shot out fast.

Garcia thought, It has to be ten feet long!

It kept expelling out of the child’s mouth like a missile. Then the slimy birth wildly jerked and bent like an insect, and dark flesh that appeared burnt formed on it in thick chunks of soggy mass.

What looked like a head popped out of the end farthest away from the baby’s mouth, with bulbous green eyes that dangled from its sockets held by strings of slime, while claws stretched and lurched from skeletal hands that formed out of the muck around its sides.

The bearded baby still moaned and thrashed, as the monster it was giving birth to grew immense and stood erect. Slime seemed to be everywhere surrounding the new-born creature.

All the while Garcia was grabbing Allegra tightly, still unable to speak, unable to take it in. What had he wrought?  Fear gripped him like a cancer; fear beyond anything.

Suddenly, hunched legs grew from the creature and it smashed down on the cradle. Its bearded mother disappeared into its scum.

Garcia and Allegra began to run for the arched doorway, “My God, “Allegra cried to Garcia, “It’s hideous! It looks just like it; just like the angel in my dream!”

“That is no angel, that is the devil.”

Allegra tugged on Garcia’s arm. “Oh no, you know what this means, Garcia! If this is the angel in my dreams, next we will fall into a snake pit!”

Then Allegra saw its claws lurch down and thrash at Garcia's skull.

The creature now hovered over them, oozing slime. Its head with its drooling eyes arched, and its mouth opened revealing a row of sharp crooked teeth, and a long thin red tongue.

“Oh my God, Garcia, your head is bleeding!”

“Allegra, run, you can still make it out of here,” Garcia said, kneeling on the floor holding on to his blood drenched head.

The monster stood above them as if it were a cat toying with them. It clawed at Garcia’s head again and Allegra, not thinking, lunged at its claw and kicked it. The monster lurched back for a moment allowing Allegra to grab Garcia’s legs and begin to pull him away from the creature.

“It’s no use, Allegra, I am dying and I deserve to die. I wanted Mariana because you are plain and she was a beauty. This is my punishment.”

Allegra suddenly stopped pulling Garcia.

The beast clawed at Garcia again. Its head arched, it snapped its mouth like an alligator, and a strange scream that resembled the sound of a rhino echoed from its throat.

“You are right to let me die,” Garcia said, his hands still held his head trying to stop the rush of blood.

Then, out of breath, Allegra knelt over Garcia and whispered, “Never! I am not letting you die. I have an idea. All of these creatures in the stories are afraid of fire. I will be right back!”

Garcia, feeling life escape his body watched Allegra run to the counter and rummage through the broken cabinet beneath it. The monster let out another scream and clawed at Garcia once more.

“That’s turpentine!” Garcia cried, when he saw Allegra come back with what looked like torches in her hand and a can protruding from her side.

“We are going to set that bitch on fire!” Allegra said, and then she raced and spread the turpentine around the creature’s feet.

“No!” Garcia cried, as Allegra threw the torches.

His bloodied eyes watched the explosion of fire around the monster’s mucky legs. The flames grew faster than he could have imagined. The creature acted as a conduit and lit up like a torch itself. Flames were everywhere. Everything was too hot!

The last thing Garcia saw were the walls: embers pulsating, splintering, burning, and crumbling around him.

*****

Just before dawn, the largest crowd that ever gathered on Dorado Street stood and watched Garcia’s shop and nearly every building on the block burn to the ground. The flames were unforgiving and rose high. There were no gunshots that morning on Dorado Street, only the sound of wood crackling and the whirl of sirens.

At once, the crowd hushed, because above the flames something rose, something white. Most of the people in the crowd believed they were seeing an angel rise above Garcia’s shop that morning.

And there, a small woman in the crowd who cradled a bearded baby she had concealed within a blanket whispered, “Someday you will be beautiful like that angel, Allegra.”

Bruce Memblatt is a native New Yorker, and a member of the Horror Writers Association. He is on the staff of The Horror Zine as Kindle Coordinator.

His story “Dikon’s Light” was a recipient of Bewildering Stories 2012 Mariner Awards. His story “Destination Unknown,” received an honorable mention in the 2012 L. Ron. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards.

His story “And the Band Played On,” recently appeared in Voluted Tales,  and coming soon,  his story “The Unforeseen Return of Ruby Keen,” will be featured in the anthology  A Passion for Ghosts from Green Geko Publishing,

His works have been published several times in anthology books, magazines and zines such as Aphelion, Nameless Magazine (Cycatrix Press), Suspense Magazine, Post Mortem Press, Dark Moon Books, Sam’s Dot Publishing, Strange Weird and Wonderful Magazine, The Horror Zine, Midwest Literary Magazine, Danse Macabre, Parsec Ink, The Feathertale Review, Yellow Mama and many more.