Stubborn

I took a sip of water straight from the tap. It was so cool, but I drank until I was full. I stood ups and wiped the water from mouth. I heard the door open. Slowly at first, then it stopped. I waited. 

I jumped as the door slammed open, and slammed into the wall. 

I knew it was her. 

The smell, which wafted in with the opening of the door, was horrid. Rotten, like a cheerleader in pajamas who hasn’t showered for days.

She was dead. 

The mud smeared across his clothes, in his hair and under his fingernails told him so. 

The smell was stronger now, as he heard her shamble to the entrance to the kitchen. 

“You always were stubborn. I should have dug a deeper hole. 

Bloody Treat

The skin comes off, first in small pieces, then in whole sections. Using a finger from only one hand he picks at the wet skin and has problems grabbing it. He finally manages to pinch the flesh, but puts ever more gingerly. Slow and steady he pulls from the wrist to the crook of the elbow. This piece is wider, so he grabs the steak knife and says gently. He rolls the skin off the arm and throws it over his shoulder. The skin hasn’t been hitting the ground. His dog is very happy. 

George makes a note of this. He still doesn’t have full control over him yet, but at least he is feeding him. He’d rather have bigger pieces, like the ones the man served himself at dinner. But He thinks it might take great effort, a puppet or not, to cut your own skin off. 

The skin slips out from under George’s paw and it slaps into his muzzle. He shakes his head and the meat drops to the floor. He quickly snatches it up and chews and swallows. 

George licks his paws and the sides of his snout for the remaining morsels and realizes that the man is not cutting anymore. The sounds he hears coming from the man are no longer from the cutting. These sounds were different.  From the back of the couch, he sees the man shaking, then the sounds became louder, not unlike his howls when he gets hurt by the man or when the man leaves him outside to long in the snow. 

George’s tail wags, barks and trots to the front of the couch. He barked and growled at the man. He picked up the knife in his mouth and put it on the man’s lap. He barked his deep bark and bared his teeth. The man's eyes met George's and the crying immediately ceased. He nodded, fighting back tears.

The man whimpered. He picked up the knife and went to work on the underside of his arm. 

Last Errand

Photo: clem-onojeghuo.com

"He won't wait long," Laura reminded herself. "Hurry."

Laura was ready to crack. Her ten year old voice whispered and whined through tears that still choked her up after all these years. She let it go on her whole life.

She was near tears now, but she would not do it...she would not cry.

"How many times without crying," she whispered "makes it okay to break down?"

Laura ignored looks from the people as she walked past the checkout lanes, and the whispers of the stock boys as she walked lop sided down the hardware aisle. She grabbed what she would need for him.  She looked down at the items Dale needed so badly that he had to beat her out the door.

Laura checked out, shuffled across the parking lot and sat in her car. She closed her eyes and tried to slow down her breathing.

"You want it fixed? Stop hiding the goddamn tools..." still echoed through her head. She instinctively shrunk away from the hit that had followed.


The phone rang and she jumped.

Laura was now sitting in her idling car in front of the house she has shared with her husband for three years.

Laura picked up before the first ring was done as she was getting out of the car, carrying what Dale had wanted and so deserved.

"I'm almost home," she said before he was done yelling. The cut on her lip cracked open sending that all too familiar coppery taste through her mouth as she gazed at the back of his head through the sliding glass window.

Laura dropped the sack with the steak sauce and the beer and opened the sliding glass door. He stood up and turned, already revved up in a bellowing yell. She silenced him as she plunged the screwdriver through his gaping, yelling mouth.


<<Droppings 3>>