                            My Dear Helen 
                                  By
                            The Stranger


     And just like that she was there.
     Standing at the edge of his bed.  Her body only a shadow in
the dark.  Her eyes the only reflection in the light.
     He awoke from his half sleep and pulled himself up until he
was sitting up in bed leaning against the backboard staring at
her as she gazed back at him.  He thought she wouldn't come back
to him but here she was again.
     "Helen" he whispered.  
     She spoke before he could say anything else.  "Richard,
you've finally left me haven't you?  Ten years of marriage and
your not even trying to keep us together."
     "No" he said as he fumbled for his glasses on the
nightstand.  "That's not true, Helen.  I've tried, you know I've
tried."
     "I know you've tried in the past.  But I also know you've
stopped trying."  Her voice wasn't the smooth sound he knew long
ago.  Now it was deeper, harsher, like the coughs of an old man.  
     "I can't" he cried, "not anymore.  Please, I can't."
     "Richard, don't you want it the way it was?  Don't you want
us to be together again?"
     "Yes, yes I do.  More than anything." 
     "You remember how good we had it together, Richard?"
     "Yes" he said as the tears came rolling down his cheeks. 
"But I can't.  Please don't ask me."
     A look of anger twisted across her face.  "I'm not asking
Richard, I'm telling you what to do.  You can't live without me,
I won't allow it.  Remember that."
     He wiped the tears away from his eyes and when his vision
came back into focus she was gone.  Just as quickly as she had
appeared she had disappeared.  Richard sat in bed most of the
night crying until there were no more tears to cry.  Over and
over again he moaned to himself the words "No, I can't" but when
the morning came he knew he had to do what she wanted him to do. 
It was the only way to bring them back together.

     She worked at the mall in a clothing store.  Richard knew
she was the one the moment he saw her.  She looked very much like
Helen when she was young.  Blond hair that ended just below the
shoulders.  A tight sweater that allowed her breast to be paraded
proudly.  Long slender legs, deep blue eyes, an ass that was
small and round.  She was the one.  She had to be the one.
     Nine o'clock the mall closed.  Nine fifteen and she walked
out to her car.  His footsteps too loud behind her, he ran
forward so she wouldn't have a chance to be scared and run away. 
He put his hand around her mouth, pulled back the needle and
thrusted it into her leg, listened as her scream that was muffled
under his hands became a soft cry as the needle quickly numbed
her to sleep.  He found her keys on the ground where she had
dropped them when he grabbed her.  Her car was one of the only
cars in the parking lot and he believed no one had seen him.  He
opened her car door, put her in the backseat, and then drove off
heading for home.

     That night she came to him again.
     He was lying in bed fully awake waiting for her, knowing he
was finally going to have her tonight.  The girl from the mall
lied next to him, still out cold from drugs that he had given her
periodaticly during the day.  
     He smiled at Helen as she appeared infront of his bed.  She
looked at the girl but said nothing.  
     "Helen, I've brought a girl" he said like a child who had
brought his mother something home from school that he was very proud
of.
     Helen looked at the girl, even stepped towards the bed, and
then moved back into the shadow.  "No" she said.
     Richard almost fell on the floor.  "What do you mean?"
     "I mean no, she's not good enough."
     "She's perfect.  What's wrong with her?" Richard almost
screamed.
     "The hairs all wrong, and the face, she doesn't look
intelligent, she looks like a dumb blond.  She looks nothing like
me."
     "No, she looks just like you.  Damnit, she's perfect, she's
beautiful."
     Helen looked at Richard like the lion watching over its
prey.  And he was afraid of her.  "I'm not going to argue with
you Richard.  She's not right, the end.  Find someone better."
And with those final words she vanished into the dark.
     And Richard became angry.  Angry at himself for not being
able to find the right woman.  Angry at Helen for finding
faults in every woman he brought home.  And angry at the girl
that lied in his bed next to him.  
     His anger exploded inside him as he found his knife lying
where it always waited, on the nightstand next to his bed.  He
found the cold steel and then lost it in the body of the girl
from the mall.  Over and over until the sheets seemed to be
bleeding.  
     Inside his head he screamed at himself for allowing her to
do this to him again.  This was the twentith time Helen had
promised to him that she would come back to him if only he could
find the perfect woman's body for her to come back in.  And again
it was nothing more than a lie.  And tommorow he would have to
dig another grave in the back yard to hide the remnants of what
no one else would understand.
     And the next time she came back to him he would do it all
over again, always searching for the right woman so his dear Helen
could come back to him.  But no matter how many woman he brought
back to his house he would never find the woman that would be
perfect for Helen.  Because in Richard's mind no woman would ever
be good enough to take his dead wife's place.

