by Chris Neeley
James still wondered. Was it a woman that he had seen crouched by the fence?
He would keep an eye out for a sign.
***
Anna couldn't believe that Seph would actually shoot at her. She had crouched low, instinct kicking in. She had beckoned to him. Didn't he know who she was? Realization hit her. He must hate her.
She heard the boys come out of the house.
Seph fired the gun. He had fired into the air above her but that didn't matter. He had fired just the same.
He had just sealed his fate. She would have him lay with her once more. It would be a fitting form of torture for him. Then she would destroy him.
She had hissed at him and raced into the woods before he really did shoot her.
She made her way back to the shack, glad that Seph had seen her. Now he would know who held the power when all hell broke loose.
She dropped her potato sack just inside the door of the shack.
"Crow!" He wasn't anywhere around. He knew he had done something wrong, giving her away like that when he had been told to keep quiet. Anna would deal with him later.
She had some reading to do.
She lit a candle and got her ancestral book from the potato sack and sat down on the floor to study.
***
Seph didn't sleep well.
No wonder.
After seeing that girl, in the hog pen no less, he doubted that he would ever get a good night's sleep again.
He got out of bed at first light. His eyeballs were buzzing, jumping in their sockets, from lack of sleep.
He'd better check on the hogs. Hard telling what that girl had been doing out there in the middle of the night.
The sun was just starting to stream in the windows, a pinkish light, haling on to gold. Seph got dressed and walked out in the hallway in his stocking feet. Cliff was snoring away in his room. Fern and James had their doors closed. He didn't want to wake them so he walked as softly as he could down the stairs.
He entered the kitchen, noticing the shot gun leaning against the wall by the back door. He went to the sink and filled the carafe for the coffeemaker. He put two scoops of coffee in the filter and poured the water in, then turned it on. The coffeemaker let out a moan and started to drip.
Seph lit a cigarette and stared out the window above the sink. He could smoke in the house now. There was nobody to complain, not since Chloe had passed on. He could see a portion of the hog pen from the window. It was misty outside, the ground warmer than the morning air, and the mist hovered just above it. It looked like a normal morning. Seph wondered if he would still feel that way after he went outside. He ran water over the butt of his cigarette and threw it in the trash can under the sink.
He reached into the cupboard and got a coffee mug and slipped the carafe from the coffee maker. Coffee dripped from the filter onto the warming burner and made a mean sizzle as he poured coffee into the mug. He slipped the carafe back in the coffee maker. It hissed at him.
He turned from the sink and took a sip of the hot brew. It was strong enough to give his heart a jolt. He sat down at the kitchen table, placing the mug in front of him. He eyed the shot gun. It still leaned against the wall, silently accusing. He lifted the mug to his lips. His hand stopped mid-way. On the side of the mug it said 'Happy Mother's Day'. A pin pricked his heart. Chloe's mug. He brought the mug up to his mouth and took a gulp. Coffee seared down his throat and he made a noise that sounded like 'gawk', and swallowed hard.
He was awake now.
He'd finish his coffee and then head on out. He knew that he was stalling, but he was a little afraid of what he might find.
Seph walked out into the sunshine and adjusted the bill of his cap. The sun was blinding. His work boots crunched on the gravel as he crossed to the barn. He got a pail from the barn and filled it with bonemeal and feed and headed out to the hog sty. If the hogs looked all right, he'd go ahead and let Georgia out of the stall in the barn so she could get some air.
Seph opened the gate and went inside the fence, making sure he latched it behind him. He took a look around. The hogs were up, nuzzling around in the mud. They looked all right from here. He walked on over and dumped the pail into the feed trough and stepped back out of the way. They all came to the trough. At least they weren't off their feed. He walked around them, looking them over as they jostled for position. He decided he must have caught the girl in time, for there didn't seen to be anything wrong with the animals.
He went back out of the sty and into the barn by way of the sliding door that connected the barn to the sty.
Ten minutes later, he slid the door back open and Georgia meandered out into the crowd. Queen of the shit heap, he thought. Seph slid the door shut again.
He brushed his hands on his pant legs and started back for the house and a hearty breakfast. He might even cook. His mind felt a bit easier now that he had seen the animals were fine.
***
James came downstairs to find his father frying eggs at the stove.
He looked around to make sure he was in the right house.
His father turned to throw an egg shell into the trash and noticed him standing there. "James. Didn't hear you come down. How many eggs can that stomach of yours hold?" Then his father grinned.
James didn't know how to take this change. "I guess I'll have two." This was weird, especially after last night.
"Two comin' at'cha." Seph turned back to the stove.
James got himself a cup of coffee.
Fern came into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. "Who's cooking?" she asked.
James almost laughed when he saw the expression on her face.
"Daddy?" she said.
"How many eggs do you want, Sis?" he asked, holding an egg in one hand.
"Um, two." Fern looked at James, mouthing the words, 'What's with him?'
"Okay," their father said, and got a plate from the cupboard.
James shrugged his shoulders at Fern and sat down at the table to drink his coffee.
His father put a plate in front of him, two eggs sunny-side up in the middle, two pieces of toast on the side. "Thanks," James said.
His father nodded.
Cliff came down and they went through all the questioning looks and shrugged shoulders again.
When everyone was at the table with their breakfast in front of them, James popped the question.
"Are we going to hunt that cat?"
"What cat?" Fern asked around a mouthful of toast.
"Last night. A big cat got in with the hogs. It was a cat, wasn't it, Dad?" Cliff asked, then shoved a forkful of egg in his mouth.
Their father stared at his plate.
James sipped his coffee, watching.
"The hogs are fine this morning," Seph said, reaching for his own cup of coffee.
"Can't we go look for the cat?" Cliff asked.
Seph set his cup on the table and got up, taking his empty plate to the sink. "No. We don't need to. I think that I pretty much scared it off last night. I doubt it will come back." He turned from the sink. "You boys finish up and go on out and finish slopping them hogs. I've got some other things to do." He walked out of the kitchen.
James watched his father walk into the living room and turn toward the stairs. The image of the person with long hair crouched beside the fence as he had swept his flashlight across them burned in his mind. He put his coffee cup in the sink and went upstairs to get dressed.
When he had come back down from his bedroom, Cliff was making himself another stack of toast and Fern had started the dishes. He didn't see his father.
James stepped out onto the back porch and squinted. He set off for the barn to take care of the hogs. Then he had his own things to do.
He finished with the hogs and cleaned his hands as best he could in the water trough inside the barn. He dried them on the legs of his jeans. He had checked Georgia's cut when he had been out in the sty and it looked much better this morning.
He walk
ed out into the sunshine. The day was already starting to heat up.
James headed for the spot where he thought he had seen the person crouching. As he neared it, he watched the ground, looking for signs of footprints. The ground was dry until you got right up to the edge of the fence that lined the sty. All he saw in the dry dirt were old boot prints that had been made sometime when the ground had been wet. They were now molded into the dirt like ancient dinosaur footprints.
James went up to the edge of the fence. The ground was soggy to about a foot on the side where the hogs would piss and shit and keep the mud at a satisfying degree of sloppiness for themselves. The ammonia smell of their urine was strongest right here and James wanted to wrinkle his nose as it bit up his nostrils. He walked along the fence, checking the mud carefully before he himself stepped in it, leaving his own boot print. He had only walked a couple of steps when he came upon something that looked like the heel print of a bare foot. His eyes traveled a little further. A complete foot print, all five toes included, was pressed into the mud. He hunkered down next to it. It looked small, too small for a man. He remembered the long hair. He put his open hand above the footprint, trying to measure the size. The toes of it only passed his fingertips by about an inch. A very small foot.
A woman's foot.
"Witch," Aunt Doll spoke up.
Goosebumps raised on James' forearms even though the thermometer had to be pushing eighty degrees.
He tracked the footprints along the fence. He found the place where the owner of the print had crouched. a hand print joined the footprints here. Then, he followed along where she had taken off in a run for the woods. When she had gotten out of the mud and onto the dried dirt, a few cakes of mud had dropped from her feet, letting him know which direction she had run, but it wasn't long before there was no sign of footprints.
James stood looking in the direction of the woods.
Who was she?
And what did she want?
***
Anna crouched lower in the bramble of the wild raspberry bush at the edge of the woods that butted up to Seph's property.
She had watched the boy sight her prints and follow them to where he stood now, staring in her direction.
Crow hadn't come back yet when she had awakened in the middle of the floor of the shack at daylight this morning. She must have just slumped over when sleep had come to take her.
She had gotten up off the floor, rubbing the shoulder that she had been lying on and picked up her potato sack and headed on out the door.
Piss on Crow, she thought as she walked through the woods. He hadn't listened to her last night and if he wasn't going to listen, what was he good for? She pushed her way through the brush and crossed the road just south of Seph's house and re-entered the woods on the other side. This was the only side of Seph's that was still wooded. He had cleared some of the land behind the house for the yard, garden, and pig sty and then let the woods have the land again. But to the north, he had cleared most of the land for crops.
Anna had come up to the edge of the woods that butted up against the yard. A raspberry bramble tangled itself a few feet back from the edge and she had thought that the middle of the bramble would be a likely place to hide and watch. She parted the bramble and crawled in, thorns snatching at her. She settled down in the best spot she could find that wasn't going to poke her to death and waited for the show to begin.
The boy had come out and she had watched him as he moved around the buildings and now he was standing, staring directly at her, it seemed. She tried to make herself small. The thorns dug into her arms, legs, and stomach.
The boy stood like a statue, his blond hair gleaming in the sun, blue eyes the color of clear water and sky.
She whispered the words 'don't see me' again and hoped they would work one more time.
***
Seph and Cliff came out of the house together and walked toward the barn, discussing the fact that school would be starting in less than a week and any other subject that Seph could think of so that he didn't have to talk about what happened last night.
Seph looked out over the sty, checking on the hogs. While he watched, one hog dropped to its knees, then rolled over on its side, legs kicking in the air.
Seph stopped walking, his legs suddenly turning to lead.
***
James heard something going on behind him but he couldn't make out what it was over the sound of Aunt Doll's voice. It boomed inside his head. "See her--see her--SEE HER!"
He stared at the same spot, the raspberry bramble just inside the edge of the woods. It was a thick bramble. Aunt Doll's voice kept screaming in his head. He concentrated.
Something started to take shape down low, in the middle of the bramble. It was the shape of a woman, a small woman, crouching low like a cat ready to pounce. The vision kept shifting in and out of focus.
He started walking toward the edge of the woods.
***
She couldn't believe it.
He was coming.
Her muscles tensed, ready for flight. "Don't see me, boy," she growled low in her throat. She clasped the potato sack to her side, ready to make a run for it.
He was still coming.
"Witchhhh...." a voice, the Mommadoll voice, breathed in her ear.
***
Seph took off for the sty, Cliff right behind him. The hogs were going crazy. Another one dropped, and the rest were moving in on it.
Seph jumped onto the fence and swung his legs over. "James! James!" Seph reached for a board that was leaning on the outside of the fence.
The hogs were squealing, in a frenzy, trampling each other.
Seph hesitated at the top of the fence. James was still walking toward the woods.
"Jaaamesss!"
James jerked his head toward Seph. The boy blinked as if he had just awakened from sleep. He looked lost.
"Get over here!" Seph jumped into the sty and started swinging the board.
The hogs, the ones that were still on their feet were tearing each other apart. Seph cracked the board across the back of one huge sow. She turned on him. Seph backed off.
Seph spotted Cliff in the corner over by the door that opened into the barn. Cliff was working Georgia back into the barn. Georgia seemed to be the only hog that was acting like a hog. He watched Cliff herd the sow into the barn and slide the door home just before a boar with a blood covered face smashed into the door. Cliff had barely escaped having a chunk of his hide taken out of him.
Seph was jostled from behind. He swung around, board ready to use as a club.
James was mounting the fence, ready to jump in.
"Get the gun! Get the goddamn shot gun!" Seph yelled, shoving off another hog as it opened its mouth to try to take a bit out of his leg.
He had to get out of the sty.
He worked his way back to the fence, cracking the board against snouts, heads, and any other place that he could hit to keep the hogs off of him.
Separating the hogs was impossible. They were too far gone. They were eating each other alive. The smell of blood and excrement was overpowering.
He was going to have to shoot them.
He had one leg over the top rail of the fence when something latched onto his other leg and bit down.
***
James ran for the house.
He slammed through the door and grabbed the gun where it still rested against the wall. The shells. Where are the shells?
Gun in one hand, he pulled open the junk drawer that they kept in the kitchen. It came too far out and fell to the floor with a crash. The contents scattered across the floor.
"Damn!" James dropped to his hands and knees and started picking through the stuff, shoving what shells he could find into his pockets.
He raced back outside, almost ripping the screen door off its hinges. There, he saw his father straddling the fence, for some reason not coming the rest of the way over. James ran, trying to chamber a shell as he went.
/> He got the gun loaded just as he got to his father. He was still hanging on the fence.
"Pull me over! Pull me over!" his father yelled.
James grabbed his father's arm and pulled as hard as he could. He heard a 'rrrrip'.
Seph tumbled over the fence, landing in the mud at the edge of the fence. James helped him to his feet.
"Gimme the gun," his father said angrily. "You load it?"
"Loaded," James said. James noted that the calf of one of his father's legs was bloody and a piece of his jeans had been ripped away.
Seph brought the gun up to his shoulder and pulled off two quick shots. He reached his hand out to James. "Shells." Two hogs writhed in pain in the muck, gunshot wounds bleeding into the mud. The other hogs closed in on the two and finished them off, tearing them to pieces.
James put two more shells in his father's hand and his father immediately put down two more hogs. Seph continued to shoot until every hog was down, if not dead.
"Give me the rest of the shells, James."
James gave them to him and his father put them into his pants pockets, chambering two into the gun. Seph climbed over the fence and walked through the mud of the sty, blasting at any hog that had the bad sense to move.
James watched him from the side of the fence. His father's face was grim, determined, as he destroyed what he had worked so long to accumulate. After every hog was surely dead, Seph stood in the sty, covered with mud, and hung his head.
Thirty-odd hogs were dead, blasted with a shot gun. They couldn't take them to market now. They would have to call someone to come out and see just what they could salvage of the pork, if anything. What ones hadn't been shot had big chunks of meat missing where the others had gnawed them.
James watched as his father slowly raised his head, his face now empty of emotion, and wondered what his father had to do with the woman that James had seen in the raspberry bramble. The same woman that he had seen by the hog sty the night before.