Fear, Davy Artero
Pure Ones
'Steve, stop fidgeting.'
He looks at his kid whose feet and hands were attached to the kitchen chair. He doesn’t stop whining and moving about so he gave him a hard time.
'Stop whining too. What I’m doing here, it’s for your own good.'
'Please daddy… Don’t force me too.'
Hector stands up and places his hand nervously on his thinning hair. Maybe, he should have taken another approach. He was putting a harness on his son before letting him know why his action wasn’t a good tactic. He must make up for his mistake and comfort him.
Listen Steve, this is just a small phase. This will all go away. Then, everything will be fine. You’ll be better than I and your grandfather ever were. We tend to be cowards in our lineage.
All of this is finally going to stop with you. You will be the first family member to become a real and tough man. You’ll never give up under pressure and you will no longer be a coward.
With these words, Hector thinks about several uncomfortable periods which date back to the start of the year. All his life, he was afraid of confrontation. He always let himself be pushed around so as to never worsen the situation or cause a scandal. His father used to be the same way and he even created an ideology of it for himself. Giving in without truly giving up. It was his way to survive in this world of brutes. Hector had applied all of these principles for the past couple of years before noticing that it was extremely annoying and totally stupid. Only his son followed the same path and his suggestions to make him behave differently weren’t going to change anything. Hector deduced that it wasn’t an educational problem. It was embedded in him, in the depths of his genes. He had to fix it.
'Please dad. I don’t want you to do like you did with mum.'
'That has nothing to do with it. Your mother was hysterical. Did you see her get annoyed since? Isn’t she charming and smiling every minute now?'
'Yes, she is. But…'
Steve’s words vanished sobbingly into the air. Hector sighs and kneels down again. He places his hand on Steve’s mouth to stop his jeremiads to make him listen to what he has to say.
'You just need to be still for a few seconds.'
Steve opens his eyes when Hector draws closer with the ice pick.
'That’s good. Try to keep your eyes open so that I can…'
Steve didn’t let him finish his sentence. He managed to speak, letting out a long ear-splitting cry before moving about even more.
'What the hell, Steve!'
Hector looked at his wife who was seated around the small round kitchen table.
'Darling? Can you get me a belt?'
Fabienne inclines her head towards Hector. She smiles. A pretty fixed grin that she constantly displays since he took care of her one evening.