ABOMINATIONS

CRAE

Shauna's apartment is comfortable, small. The smell of the smoke from her cigarette is forever in the furniture, her clothes, and Crae's nostrils. Her eyes lazily scanned her cards, and when she sighed a cloud of smoke trailed out of her mouth. Crae thought to himself that she was particularly attractive like this, but he kept thoughts like that to himself, offering instead a chip to the pot.

"Fold," Shauna said slowly, setting her cards down and sliding them across the table.

"Fuck," Crae muttered, flicking his full house down.

Shauna smirked around her cigarette. "Amateur," she said. "You have such obvious tells."

"What tells?" Crae asked, but Shauna just shrugged, taking her cigarette out of her mouth and ashing it on her ashtray.

"Never gonna tell you," she said, standing up and heading over to her fridge, swirling the smoke that hung in the air as she moved. "You want something to eat?"

"I'm good," Crae responded, cleaning up the cards and chips and setting them to the side. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through social media as Shauna cooked something on the stove. He was busy looking through Facebook when his phone started ringing, showing TILER MURPHY (WORK). He answered it with his usual, "Yeah?"

"Crae, did you get my texts?"

"No, I've been playing cards with Shauna. What's up?"

"Oh good, you're with Shauna. I need you guys to do something."

 

Crae wasn't sure how Pepper was able to obtain addresses via websites and apps where people listed things to be sold, but he did, and Tiler had her eye on a necklace like this not too long ago, and she wasn't going to pass up this chance, even though it was still broad daylight. Her excuse was that if she didn't get it now, the listing would go down. So, the idea was that Shauna would distract the woman who lived there. Thanks to Pepper's other talent that was a mystery to Crae was using various sketchy websites to obtain information about who lived in the houses they were hitting. From him, they knew that the woman who lived here was in her forties, single, and probably had a lot more jewelry.

Crae waited, crouching out of sight on the side of the house. He waited until he heard the doorbell ring, and the woman opened it, and he swung himself up over the fence and started going to work on one of the back windows. With the few tools in his pocket he was able to get it open relatively quickly and slip inside the house, silently closing it back behind him.

When he looked around, he knew that he had gotten into more than he bargained for. Not one, two, or three, but four cats sat perched in various places around the living room, all still aside from their tails flicking, staring at him, waiting for him to move.

"Shit," he murmured, staring at the multiple wildcards before him. If he moved slowly, he hoped, they would leave him alone. He tiptoed to the side, cutting through the dining room. In the background he could hear the woman chattering with Shauna. Picking up the pace, he located the bedroom and started looking through the vanity drawers, looking for the necklace that Tiler had sent them for. While doing so he pocketed any jewelry that looked like it might be worth something.

Finally, there it was. He grabbed it and spun around, ready to get out of the house, but he was suddenly face to face with a black cat standing in the doorway, its green eyes boring into Crae's. It was the only way back out to the hallway, and the window that was still unlocked. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

The door shutting shook Crae out of his stupor. The woman was back in her house.

"Damn," he said under his breath, and took a step towards the door as he shoved the necklace in his pocket. The cat didn't like this movement, and let out a hiss, the hair on its back standing up. Crae shrunk back and tried once more to step forward, getting a more forceful hiss this time, and Crae realized that it wasn't going to work.

"Allllbert?" Called the woman, and even without seeing her Crae could tell she was older by her voice. "Where's my baby boy?"

Her heavy footsteps were heading down the hallway towards the bedroom, where Crae was still standing, frozen. Thinking fast, he turned and bolted into the closet, shutting the shutter doors and squishing himself against the old lady clothes that smelled so strongly of mothballs, Crae thought that he was going to throw up. A silent shadow passed across the slits in the door, and those same green eyes met his through them.

"Go away," Crae whispered. The woman's footsteps got closer, and he tried to stay still. The cat hissed again and scratched at the door a few times before the woman made it into the bedroom and picked him up.

"Albert!" she exclaimed, picking up the cat. "Why are you staring at the closet, boy, what's in there?"

Please don't open the closet, Crae thought.

The cat meowed, and the woman asked him if he was hungry. After another meow she turned and walked out of the room, and Crae let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in. After a moment or two he finally opened the closet door and stepped out, making sure the coast was clear of cats and old cat ladies. He snuck down the hallway and paid close attention to the sounds of the woman feeding her cats in the kitchen. He snuck into the living room and opening the window hastily, climbing out and turning around. As he slid it shut, the woman emerged in the corner of his view, and for a second they made eye contact.

"Motherfucker," Crae shouted, and he made a break for the fence, pulling himself over and sprinting down the street towards the old black Mustang parked about a block down the road. He heard the sound of a door opening and the woman yelling, although he couldn't understand what she was saying.

The loud slamming of the mustang door and screeching of the tires made Crae feel safe. It was over. They were safe, and hopefully the woman didn't see enough of Crae's face to give police anything to go on. He slumped down in his seat and sighed, pulling out the necklace and setting it on the dashboard. "Got it," he said, and Shauna shot him a niiice.

 

Tiler was content with her necklace, trying it on and looking at herself on her phone. "This is going to sell for a good chunk of cash," she purred. "Sorry for sending you guys while it's still daylight. Did you have any problems?"

Crae just shook his head.

 

And just like that, they were back in Shauna's apartment, except now they were laying side by side on her bed, which was the nicest part of the apartment. Before they had met, she slept on the pull out couch in the living room and the bedroom was more like a study. When Crae started staying around more, and they inevitably broke the couch bed, he chipped in to buy her a queen. It was the biggest bed she had ever owned in her life, and when she told him that after thanking him for helping set it up, he responded that "his queen needed a queen," which earned him a slap on the arm.

"Shauna?" he said.

"Hmm?" she responded, turning on her side to look at him. It was about five in the afternoon and her she was beautiful in this light, her almond skin glowing with an orange tint.

"I'm kinda worried about that old lady."

"Why? I told her about my mormon church and kept her occupied long enough for you to get out without being seen. I doubt she'll even notice most of her jewelry is gone," she said, holding up her hand to inspect the two new rings on her finger.

"She saw me."

Shauna sat up. "What?"

"Right at the end. Outside her window. We made eye contact right before I ran off. And I'm pretty sure I heard her open the door and yell something at me."

For a few moments, Shauna was silent, looking somewhere past Crae. "I think you'll be fine," she finally told him. "Like I said, that lady was pretty oblivious. She didn't even realize half of the shit I was telling her was just completely made up. I told her we were having a feast she was invited to at 'the church' this Saturday for Saint Seya. And she fucking bought it."

Crae laughed. "Saint Seya, as in, the anime?"

"Yes, dude, what other Saint Seya is there?"

"Apparently the one the mormons throw a feast for."

Shauna laughed and laid her head on his chest. "I wonder if she'll actually show up at some church wondering where the feast is."

"That would be hilarious."

They settled back into silence and Crae let his worries of getting caught dissipate. Instead his mind was filled with how much money the rings and other pieces of jewelry he managed to snap that Shauna didn't want were going to sell for. He was going to take them to a pawn shop in the morning, and with any luck he would net a couple hundred dollars and have enough money to take Shauna out for the weekend.

A text from his mother caught him off guard, and he opened his phone to look at it.

MOM: Crae i want you home its been a few days. Cant get caroline to go to school because she wants lunch packed before she leaves. Please bring home stuff to make some peanut butter and jelly. Thank u miss u, mom

"Hey, Shauna, I gotta go."

She sat up and looked at him, confused. "Why?"

"My mom wants me home."

Silence fell between them. He didn't need to say anything else, and that was the end of it. Crae didn't really tell Shauna anything about his mom, but the first time he had to ditch her to run home he explained it in such a way that conveyed the importance of him returning. She didn't get it, but she understood, and she didn't say anything as he pulled on his shirt and laced up his shoes. As usual, Shauna walked him to the door and saw him off, but when the door closed behind her it was just him, alone in the parking lot, heading towards his car.

 

"Mom? I'm home. I have the groceries you wanted me to bring."

The house was quiet. The sun was setting, but none of the lights in the house had been turned on yet. Crae flipped on the kitchen light and set down the bag that contained bread, peanut butter, and grape jelly that he had bought at the store. One of the bulbs was out and the remaining two hummed as they bathed the room in a soft orange light. He could barely make out the form of his mom sleeping on the couch in the living room. He didn't want to wake her so he quietly put together a lunch for his sister. When he was done he turned off the kitchen light and felt his way through the living room past his mom, who was snoring softly. He headed towards his sister's room and knocked on her door.

"Yeah?" came her voice from the other side, and Crae opened the door.

"Hey Caroline," he said.

His younger sister looked up from her book she was reading and smiled, jumping out of bed to run over and hug Crae. "I missed you!" she shouted. "Why do you have to stay gone for so long?"

"I'm sorry, Caroline," Crae said, holding her tight. "I really should be around more often."

She muffled an mmhmm into his chest.

"Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something to eat?"

"Where?"

"You pick."

"I want ice cream!"

"For dinner?"

"Ice cream for dinner!"

About half an hour later they were returning home from the grocery store with two pints of ice cream. They went back to Caroline's room and sat on her bed eating their treats.

"How's school?" He asked her.

"Stupid," Caroline said matter-of-factly. "Sixth grade is so dumb. What am I ever going to do with fractions? Why do I need to learn about them?"

"Because the government decided you need to," Crae said dramatically, pointing his spoon at her. "Are there any boys giving you trouble? You know I'll come beat them up for you."

Carlone smiled and stuck a huge spoonful of her strawberry ice cream into her mouth. "No. Boys like me. They fight over me on the playground."

Crae laughed. "I didn't know you were so popular."

"I'm not popular I'm just pretty," Caroline replied.

"Yes you are."

"And so are you!"

"You think I'm pretty?"

"Yeah! Wait, no, pretty's for girls. You're handsome."

"Well thank you, Caroline."

When they finished their ice cream Crae took the trash to the kitchen to throw it away and put the spoons in the sink. As he was clinking around he heard his mom stir, and she lifted her head to investigate where the noise was coming from.

"Crae?" the word crawled from her throat like a sick beetle, and her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. She had probably passed out right after she sent him that text message. "Didn't think you'd actually come home."

"I had to. Caroline has to have lunch."

"You're always so busy with that girlfriend of yours," his mom continued, refusing to acknowledge that he had even spoken.

"She's not my girlfriend, mom," he said pointlessly.

"Right, she's the girl you spend the night with so you don't have to stay here."

"It's not that. I enjoy her company and she enjoys mine. I come back when you need me to, and I bring groceries. I even pay the electric and water bills. What more do you want from me?"

She sat up and scratched the back of her head. Her hair was a rat's nest, her eyes sporting bags darker than her pupils, which were dilated so far he couldn't even see her irises. It was unclear whether she had been drinking or doing drugs before she fell asleep.

"I want you to act like you're a part of this family. Stay with your mom and sister and don't abandon them," his mom hissed.

"I'm not abandoning you. I bring you food, I give you money, and I'm here right now, mom. I'm not doing anything wrong."

His mom just waved her hand and laid back down, mumbling "go to your room" but without any real conviction behind it.

Crae took a breath and reminded himself of the situation she was in. It wasn't really her fault that she was acting this way. The best he could do was keep working for Tiler and making the money to keep their house out of foreclosure. He turned off the kitchen light once more and walked back to his room, which was the same as how he left it a couple days before. He took off his sweater and pants and got into bed. The sheets were cold around him, and he let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.