The Calm

By William Butler

A short story by William Butler, author of the novels Bang and The House of Balestrom. Jean has decided to help her daughter, Linda, run away from home so Linda can be with Beth, the woman she loves.
She had it all planned out on how she was going to get Linda out of the house before, Kevin (the controlling father) gets home. It doesn't work out as planned when a terrible storm hits the town trapping the three family members in the house while they wait it out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Butler
• Release date: Mar 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458114563

William Butler

William was born in Morehead City, NC. He moved around a lot as a child living in various places such as NY, GA, FL, VA, until his family settled back in NC, where he lives now. He runs the blog Bang Noir and writes articles for examnier.com. His debut novel, Bang was published in December 2010.

Book preview

THE CALM

A Short Story By

WILLIAM BUTLER

THE CALM

Published by William Butler at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 by William Butler

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The wind blew hard outside knocking open the screen door for the third time today. Jean ran over grabbing at the handle to pull it shut. She locked it so it wouldn’t blow open again. The storm was coming and Jean didn’t know what to do other than continue to make dinner and iron clothes. The television was blaring the news telling her that she should prepare for the worse.

What was that noise, Linda said from her bedroom.

The damn screen door blew open again, Jean said. She wiped her hands on her apron and then walked back into the kitchen to stir the steaming pot of chicken. She was going to make Kevin’s favorite meal tonight. He loved chicken and dumplings and she wanted tonight to be special.

The what, Linda said again from her bedroom.

The screen door, Jean said, yelling but stopped. She walked into Linda’s bedroom as she wiped her hands again on the apron. Linda moved from