Unholy Trinity: Timmy by James Rumpel
Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.
I
I remember a day nearly fifteen years ago. When I got home from work and pulled in the driveway, I noticed the neighbor boy, Timmy, sitting on his stoop throwing pebbles at a toad. He was probably about seven years old at the time.
“Hi, Timmy,” I called. “How are you doing?”
“Okay, I guess,” he replied, not looking up from his target. “I had to bury my cat today.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” I said. “How did it die?”
Timmy finally looked up at me, a sheepish grin on his face. “I never said anything about it being dead.”
II
When Timmy was in his late teens, I was talking to him in the yard one Saturday evening. I noticed he was carrying a long, skinny duffel bag. Curious, I asked him what kind of plans he had for that night.
“I’m going to take out a girl at the mall,” was his reply.
“Don’t you mean you’re going to take out a girl to the mall.”
The same sly grin that had seen many times over the previous dozen years, once again, appeared on his face.
He chuckled, “I think I said it exactly the way I meant it.”
III
After the officer finished questioning me, I turned to watch the crime scene investigators carry shovels and a jack-hammer into the basement of Timmy’s family home.
Soon after, I was confronted by a reporter from the local television station.
“Tell us about the neighbor boy,” she demanded. “Did you have any clue that he was capable of such heinous crimes?”
I shrugged. “Timmy seemed like a nice kid. He had a keen sense of humor. I got along well with him. Heck, we even have the same hobby.”
I smiled to myself, hoping the reporter wouldn’t decipher my cryptic comment.
James Rumpel
James Rumpel is a retired high school math teacher who has enjoyed spending some of his additional free time trying to put some of the weird ideas circling his brain into words.
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Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Her longer work includes the folk horror novels, The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, and The Woodcutter, and the novellas, Bottled and Paused (all via Brigids Gate Press). Her dark poetry has been published in her collections Lilith Rising (co-authored with Shane Douglas Keene), Foundlings (co-authored with Cindy O’Quinn) and Metallurgy, as well as the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII, VIII, and IX and Black Spot Books Under Her Skin. She can be found supporting indie authors at HorrorTree.com via the weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases. She can be found at https://stephanieellis.org and on Blue Sky as stephellis.bsky.social.
