The beach house

                                         The Beach House
                                       
“The view’s just wonderful”
“Best view on the whole east coast” the man in the red suit must of used that line a thousand times before because like most of his trained words it came out his mouth easy as air.
But on this occasion she thought he didn’t even have to, because even he knew, that bullshit wouldn’t need to sell.
It was the best view on the whole east coast.

“Do I even have to ask” she gave Lloyd a sure leer.
“Well take it”
The man in the red suit smiled, particularly at her “It almost hurts to be in my position, selling a gem like this” Mary wondered how much practice he put into that smile, especially when saying what she thought was the most sincere thing he’s ever said in his career, if not his life.
“Very well then, just sign right here, the two of you” Lloyd snatched the pen first, signing  fast “and you Miss” another suggestive look. She managed more control but likewise fought to keep her shaking hand from scribbling incoherently, trying for her title of such a treasure to be as legible as possible as well also resisting the man’s intimidation.
“Sorry, just a bit excited” she tried not to blush.
“Well that’s the hard part. The rest is vacation” the man in the red suit lifted his small hand from his pocket where Mary noticed it has been since morning, and offered Lloyd the first handshake, then proceeded with it slowly to Mary whose stomach turned at the part she thought was hardest.
“It’s been nice to meet you” she lied, avoiding his name which on the company suit above his purple moose crest boldly stated, Tom.
“The pleasure’s been mine” the man made a bowing gesture still holding her hand, produced another counterfeit smile and left.

“What a creep” she quickly went inside to wash her hands.
“The man’s just being a man. How do you expect him to act, most guys that approach you have one hand covering their crotch and the other wiping drool off their face”
“Yeah, but at least they have the decency to not hit on me in front of my husband” she yelled back from the kitchen window.
“Believe me, if your concern is me, know that that only makes me proud”
She made a slinky slip out the back the door and wrapped her wet arms around his neck “and you don’t worry, bullshit” he pulled her up in a piggyback “you probably have each one them marked with death threats”
He laughed.
“See, but this is the part I would like to have them witness most” he turned to kiss her still holding her body above his waist.
“Wuow” her school-girl giggle only astounding his already tempered penis.
“Take me upstairs” she commanded playfully.
“The upstairs” he mumbled between kisses then pulling his lips away form hers. “Are you forgetting something”
She looked at him dumbly “huh”
“Baby, we got the whole beach to fuck on now”.

And they dropped into the pale sand.
                                                           ****

“God, if there’s one thing that needs complaining it’s this God-awful paint smell” Mary avowed, putting a finger in her contorted gagging mouth to execute her point.
“Yeah, the paints new and I agree it’s pretty strong” he slapped his palm against the wall failing to trap a fat, lucent fly.
“What was that” Mary asked from the hall.
“Nothing” he mumbled, the last to himself “Just another fly” then continued,
“Give it a few days thought and I’m sure it’ll clear up”
“Well I hope so, I know how my head reacts to these kinds of fumes” she paused for the quip chaser
“Badly” she was smiling with the satisfaction of her dud, Lloyd wasn’t paying attention.
“I’ll be in a migraine for weeks”
“If it doesn’t go away by the end of this week well cover it with something. Peppermint oil or vanilla extract, I seen that on commercials. Or we could try something my father used to do to get rid of particularly offensive odors during our time”
“What odors? Horseshit” she chordled.
“Actually yeah, all shit. Farm shit. The worse kinds of shit there is. Smells of shit that make this smell like a garden ”
“And what’s the fix, this secret potion” she teased taking a seat on the unpackaged boxes. The crossing fans united now to blowing the condensed smell of rubber and ammonia in her full direction. She plucked her nose again and made a gagging swallow in her throat.
“Ehhh”
“Charcoal” he put down a legless chair along with its oversized fitting legs “It’s like a counteractant. Put some in a bucket covered with wet towels and it should absorb most smells. At least I know it absorbs the smells from solvents, I’m not too sure why it worked on horseshit”
“Well, whatever works, but can you try to do it today, pleeeeeeease.” She moaned, leaving her boxes and crawling to him on her knees. Her big, capturing eyes almost twinkling with deviance.
“Don’t even try, it won’t work, it won’t. I’m busy now”
“You always say that and you put stuff off until everyone forgets”
She tugged down on his arm with one hand putting his palm on her breast and caressed his bare chest with the other, assuring him that this discussion was taking place and the reward for acting on it was grand.
He knew that his weakness to this beautiful woman who was his wife made him now anointed no matter what, to the responsibility of exorcising these demon odors among the many more ‘odors’ that the future would have him suckered for. This organ that defined him as man was also costing him that title, he wondered if there was an age when his dick would stop wagging to Mary’s fancies.
“Alright, alright, I’ll see if I have time. After” this he nearly yelled “I finish with these damn chairs and then” he fit the final leg holding the finished chair up like a trophy “I’ll stop by a Home Depot or some hardware store”
He swat at an oncoming fly.
“Thanks hon, your the best” she gave him a big slow lick on the cheek and patted his crotch.
“And the faster you finish, the faster we can go to the park. Raff ruff” she barked promiscuosly “know what I mean”.
Lloyd just grumbled.
Another fly, this time he ducked.
“Jesus, did you see the size of that thing. Could take a baby’s head off”
“Yeah, that’s another problem, these big, green flies” she was brushing the air with her hands, avoiding Lloyd’s retreating attacker. “What the hell do they eat? Cats”
“Well, the windows are open now, and I’m sure Tommy boy there had to air out the place pretty good days in advance of our coming. I mean it didn’t smell this bad a week ago did it?”
“No, a week ago it was fine. Well coming from that sneak, it wouldn’t surprise me” she shuddered at the thought of him. “I never met a Tom I liked”
“Did you ever meet a Tom?”
She took a moment to think that over “Shouldn’t you be leaving now”.

                                                     *******


The walls were coated thickly now both with peppermint oil and vanilla extract, but the smell just intensified, and masking it only seemed to agitate the official smell and emit an impenetrable stench that was antiseptic as well as rotten.
A week with the charcoal bucket, no, 3 charcoal buckets and still, Mary just couldn’t bear it.
“That’s it, were calling the exterminators, smell exterminators. No paint could smell that bad, it doesn’t even smell like paint anymore. Smells like a tomb that’s been uh, closed” her hands exaggerative “for a millennia. And until then, I’m camping out on the beach” She slammed the back door.
Lloyd couldn’t argue. The smell has been getting worse. Much worse. And it was breeding the flies with it. He was now carrying a tennis racket sheathed in plastic, to smack the flies with. They were everywhere, buzzing like stored electricity. Even with the windows shut and the air toxic with insecticides, the fly-beasts whizzed like kamakazi’s through the stunk-air, hitting walls and everything in their way or just dropping dead to the floor.
But the most of them Lloyd noticed, were in the upstairs hall, seeping through the air vents and circling below the attic staircase.
         
                                                       *******

“Mary, come in a moment” she was walking across the shoal that led to a small islet in the backyard ocean “I need a hand with something”
“I don’t want to step into that house until the exterminators are done with it”
“Mary, I think I know where the smell is coming from” he yelled back. She seemed puzzled.
“What do you mean where, the whole house reeks”
“I know, but that’s because it’s all vented with the same connection. I think the smell is coming from the attic”
“The attic” she asked surprised “I didn’t even know we had an attic”
“Well, we have an attic and that seems to be what the flies are attracted to. They congregate around the staircase. I need some help pulling it down, I don’t even know how it opens”
He could hear her groaning, her hands out at her sides, palms up as if to indicate his uselessness.
“Hold on” she grumbled.


                                                           *******

“Jesus, I never seen that. It calls to them like a bug lamp”
“Yeah, okay, hold on to that chair” Lloyd stood on the chair with the oversized legs, the ceiling wasn’t that high except he didn’t know if he would have to lift himself into the attic somehow or if a staircase would come down. He was pretty sure it was a staircase attic.
The flies were swirling chaotically, bouncing off each over and pelting into Lloyd’s face.
“What, is there some Queen their protecting. What are they so pissed off about” he yelled ducking his head in his arm to cover his eyes and mouth.

He first pushed at the box hatch seeing if it would lift up but it didn’t. Instead a small line fell with a dangling ball knob.
“Okay, here I go, you might wanna move in case this whole thing crashes down”
Mary moved, her hands fighting off the winged assailants.

Lloyd leapt off the chair pulling the string with him.

In seconds the staircase came unrolling down. Thousands of flies in a gust cloud of black fell like a hovering mass with it.
“Ahhh” Mary screamed taking cover on the floor. The smell was horrendous. Lloyd took off his shirt and started to fling the material through the fly horde trying to reach his screaming wife. The narrow hall was black and he couldn’t see Mary but he felt her arms clutch to his leg.
“Mary, their only flies, its okay” He spoke through his teeth avoiding to catch the fuzzy gnats in his mouth.
She wasn’t reassured.
The final tail of the swarm descended from the opening like an extinguished flame, and the beige color of the walls began to return.
Lloyd picked his wife from the floor and let her cry on his shoulder.
“What’s wrong with this Goddamn house” the smell was so bad that she couldn’t even sniffle. It left a taste of decay in her mouth.
“It’ll be okay. Were calling the exterminators today” he groomed her head with assurance.

“Lloyd” she poked him on the shoulder hard, than harder “What’s that, behind the stairs. The red thing”
Lloyd turned to look, still waving off the remaining flies.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything fall out with all the flies that came out”
He nudged at the red fabric with his foot and pulled it out to view.
“Jesus” he held his breath to resist the climbing vomit, when he turned to his wife she had already swooned to the floor.

A skull lay almost picked clean, with green patches of tattered flesh bustling with botflies and white, soupy life.
The trunk of the becoming skeleton wore a fine red suit. With a purple moose crest and a tag boldly stating.
Tom.