Kill the King by Eric Samson Page B

he had hidden his gun. He nervously ran his
hands over his body in search of it while Marko kept talking.
    “I should have
listened to her, but my greed was too strong. With time I managed
to convince her that we should stay and use the money for more
illegal investments before defecting. First we imported contraband
cigarettes from Turkey. Then it was hashish. Before long we became
secretly rich. Rozafa and I were wed by then, in spite of the work
that consumed me more and more with time. Our daughter was born
soon afterwards.”
    Marko paused.
His gaze drifted away to the ceiling, as if he were hoping that
someone above was listening to the story that he was sharing with
Tyler.
    “Her name was
Luljeta. God be praised, I will never see such beauty again. .
.”
    I don’t have a
choice. I can’t go back. I’m sorry, Marko.
    Still seated,
Tyler pulled out his gun and pointed it at Marko’s face. Tyler’s
eyes squinted as he attempted to steady his aim. There were now two
Markos in front of him and he couldn’t figure out which one was
real.
    Enraged, Marko
sprung to his feet, walked over to Tyler at point-blank range, and
slapped him across the face before picking him up by his jacket
collar.
    “You stupid,
drunken child! How dare you play games while I speak to you? Have
you lost your fucking mind?”
    Marko swiped
the gun out of Tyler’s hand and slugged him in the gut. His fist
was as hard as stone. Tyler fell to one knee, clutching his abdomen
as he retched on the wooden floor.
    “Are you still
awake, my boy? Good. I’ll forget you did something so stupid if you
listen to my story. There’s a lesson to be learned from all
this.”
    Tyler strained
to lift himself up and get back to his seat. The stench of vomit
stung his nostrils.
    “We made good
money but Rozafa was never happy with my decision to stay home. We
had lost our one and only chance to be free and happy together. We
had lost our chance at finding some peace for our souls. Then one
summer, everything fell apart.”
    Marko grabbed
Tyler’s glass and drained it before slumping back in his chair.
Tyler was too drunk to tell whether it was sweat or tears that he
saw Marko wipe away from his face.
    “It rained for
weeks on end. Many parts of the country were flooded. When the rain
finally stopped, the plague came next. I should have expected this.
. .it wasn’t not the first time that God sent floods and plagues to
punish the wicked. It’s the children who suffer for the sins of
their fathers.”
    That’s right,
Marko. I’ve suffered for you. . .now it’s time for your
punishment.
    “Her little
eyes sank into her skull. Her skin turned blue and cold. Oh, the
times Rozafa wept for hours on end. . .and all the pleas I made to
God to save our child! Our prayers went unanswered. No, God
would not listen. . .not to me. By the time the doctors discovered
it was cholera, it was too late to save her. We had all this money
and yet we could not keep her safe. She was not even old enough to
go to school. You know nothing of sorrow until you bury your own
child. To see her little body wrapped in linen and placed in a pine
box deep in the ground, alone with no one to hold her. .
.”
    This time,
Tyler could tell for sure that they were tears. It was a side of
him that Tyler had never seen before.
    Sweet fucking
hell. . .I can’t believe this shit. Is this some kind of trick? Is
he stalling for time?
    “Luljeta. My
sweet, delicate Luljeta! My little flower! God had stolen her from
us! My poor, poor Luljeta! Forgive your father, please!
Luljeta!”
    His voice
trembled when he cried out her name, as if its mere utterance ate
away at his insides. He picked Tyler up from his seat and clutched
him hard as he wept. Tyler fumbled for his gun.
    Should I make
you beg for my forgiveness?
    “Rozafa never
forgave me for it. She said it was my fault; that we should have
defected when we had our chance. Do you want to know what she said
before she left me? Do you know