Only the Strongest Survive Read Online Free PDF Page B

pointed
to it with a perfectly serious expression on his face.
    John looked
down in embarrassment and couldn ’t wait
for the scornful eyes to look away.
     
    *
     
    Once , when Mother had sent them
to the store, Ronald happily played ball with his friends while
John did the shopping. He was so angry at his brother that he
forgot to get the three things that Mother most wanted. When they
came back home, she berated him firmly.
    “It’s my fault,” Ronald said. “John finds it
difficult to remember things. I made a mistake. I should’ve been
with him.”
     
    *
     
    He
always seemed so nice, John thought. But humiliating me all the time …? John looked at his brother again and felt hatred toward him
for the first time in his life. How on earth have I been able to stand it for so
long? The drive seemed endless. Agitated,
he kept running his fingernails along his pants.
     
    *
     
    Finally
they arrived at the house. Their father
had bought the place for weekends, and in addition to their own
real estate, it was the only thing left from the inheritance that
they hadn’t had to sell for financial reasons. The problem was that
it would be difficult to find a suitable buyer. It was like a
mansion, with ten fully furnished bedrooms. It was deep in the
woods, completely isolated, nearly ten miles away from the nearest
neighbor.
    While their
father was still alive, the land around
the house, measuring over ten acres, was covered with a veritable
botanical garden. However, the numerous decorative plants had now
been replaced by thorny creepers. The beautiful cypresses that used
to be trimmed into cubes and spheres grew every which way, as if
competing at which could look the wildest. Most of the trees that
had been planted had dried up and been replaced by more resilient
ones. The tall stone wall was the only thing that distinguished
this private land from the wild woods surrounding it.
    Ronald got
out of the car, stretched, and yawned.
“I’m tired. I’ll head straight home.”
    John looked
at him and replied in a sharp voice, “I don’t feel like driving
home, I’ll sleep here tonight.”
    “ As you
wish, Johnny, but I don’t think you’ll
like it here alone.” He waved goodbye and climbed into his
car.
    John looked
after him and the f arther away Ronald
got, the better he felt. “Let him go to hell!” he said aloud to
himself. When the noise of the car engine had completely faded, he
listened to the morning noises in the woods, accompanied by the
howling of the wind. He felt slightly lost, without energy. He took
one last look in the direction his brother had gone and took a deep
breath. There was a tension in the pit of his stomach. I need some sleep. I’ll feel better
then.
    He
went upstairs and without realizing it
walked to the room where Emely had stayed. When John opened the
door, he could smell her perfume. The tension in his stomach
doubled. It really is a shame
about that bitch. Why did she have to be so greedy? He thought about everything she had taken from
them and felt the hatred, concluding, She deserved what she got .
    He closed the
door and set off for his room which was only a few yards away. He
glanced at his face in a round wall mirror. His eyes were swollen
and the sleepless night had left clear
traces. The face of a
murderer, he thought.
    He
looked away and sat on the old bed that
creaked under his weight, running his fingers through his
hair. Why did you have to be
so damn greedy?
    The thoughts
refused to leave his head. She had bewitched his mind, which so badly needed a rest. I’ve never enjoyed it so much … I’ve never enjoyed it
so much ….
    “ Damn it!” he
swore and set of f for the bathroom. After
a long drink of cold water, he spent a minute rinsing his face. He
felt a bit better afterward, returned to his room, and lay on the
bed. He closed his eyes.
    I’ve got two million dollars in my personal account in Switzerland ….
    He turned on his side.
    I think you’re much more