Horrible Harvest

A woman come by, breathing like a train puffing up speed. Half-naked. She’d shit herself from fright. She took a look at the dead boy and then me. I give her a head-tilt to the left. I didn’t want no part of killing her. She split the underbrush quick as a cat.

I made my way back to Charles and helped him to his feet. He’d held onto his cry, but it’d calmed just a bit.

We rambled on. The pepperbox stuffed down my britches, a rifle in my hand. Charles carried the other. Two more explosions come from Galtville. Flames was rising high into the air. I held to a hope and thought that Daddy wouldn’t be able to find his way out of the hell he was creating. The day just might turn towards a happy ending.

We rounded a big old hemlock tree and seen Douglas on the back of the rig with the crate of guns, kneeling with a revolving carbine Remington rifle, butt against his shoulder. A man come stumbling out through the archway of sticks and bones. Our brother by half took him out with a headshot ‘fore the poor old sumbitch could find two steps of freedom. The clearing was decorated with nine dead.

“Where’s Daddy?”

I didn’t hear his question. I didn’t hear nothing at all ‘cept the thump of my heart.

“Hey. Listen up. I said where’s Daddy?”

“Don’t know.”

“Wha-choo mean, you don’t know?”

“We split up. I went – I lost track of him.”

A man come out of Galtville. The flames raging behind him. Couldn’t make out his face or nothing. He just looked like a shadow running from the light. Charles fired without giving it a thought. The man went down, but not like the fella before, who fell in a heap. This one looked to dive. He got lost in the tall grass.

Charles lowered his Remington. “We need to get.”

I hated myself for asking the next question because it sounded like a give a care, but I didn’t. “What about Daddy?”

“He ain’t out of Galtville by now he ain’t never coming out. He’s a lot of things, but fireproof ain’t one of them.”

Charles took on a shake from head to toe.

Douglas tossed spent rifles into the crate. “What’s get into him?”

I looked Charles over and simply said, “Daddy.”

Douglas turned to the burning slum and said, “Looks like that problems done took care of.”

A shock of white hair is the first I seen before I seen the rest of him. The man with the liquor carved face leapt out of the tall grass, climbed the rig and threw his shoulder into Douglas’s belly. The king of the crackers was agile and efficient with his counterattack. Douglas tumbled feet over ass over the side panel of the rig. Four-foot later he landed back first to the ground, knocking every bit of air from his lungs.

Seifert spread his blistered lips into a grin, giving a show of his copper-colored teeth. The open crate of weapons caught his attention, and he quick yanked a pistol from it. While Douglas struggled to find a clean breath, the white-haired sumbitch pulled the trigger, hitting Daddy’s shadow direct in the thigh.

I heard a horse whinny behind me and I turnt to see a large masked man sitting on a spotted pony, holding a Navy Colt at arm’s length. Seifert caught three slugs and took his turn to tumble off the rig, breaking his neck in the fall.

The big masked-man holstered his gun and slipped into the woods.

“Where’s Douglas?”

Charles and I heard the question, but we didn’t want to answer because that’d mean it was true. Daddy was still alive.

“Boys! Where’s your brother?”

I give him a stare. I didn’t want to believe he was there. Ash had chased him out the fire, swirling all about him. I could smell the brine of Galtville on him, gunpowder, too. Dillard was still draped over his shoulder.

I pointed to Douglas on the ground. He’d grabbed hold of his wounded leg, in too much pain to cry out.

He put Dillard in the back of the big rig. “He shot?”

“Yes, sir.”

Daddy approached Charles.

“Well, that was a fool thing to let happen.”

He knelt down and give the wound a look.

“Didn’t go through. Take a miracle to keep that leg. A lot of good you are to me now, boy. Shouldn’t never leave your guard down. Smart thing to do would be to put you down. Save you the pain. Save me the aggravation.” He gnashed his teeth. “S’pose I got a sentimental side that’s bound to do me in. Boys, get your brother into the gig. Charles, you’re to get him home. Plant him in the barn. Don’t let your momma see a goddamn thing.” He climbed into the big rig. “I’ll tend to him when I get back. Augustus, you’re with me.”

“Where we going?”

“Gadsden’s. What was his anyway. Gotta deliver this package. I need you along. Rich man says I ain’t to visit unless called upon. Didn’t say nothing about you paying him a visit without an invitation. Odds are they ain’t gonna shoot you for trespassing.”

Me and Charles struggled to put the first born on the back of the gig. The brother by half fought in a fitful squirm the entire time. He was pert near mad with pain.

Daddy held up the bottle of half-bit pop skull that he’d purchased from the king of crackers. “Here,” he said, tossing it to Charles. “Give it to him. Tangles the mind. That’ll help with the pain.”

Charles handed the bottle to Douglas. The first sip was drunk right off. He swallowed it with a panicked gulp.

“After you get him settled. Put a fine edge on every saw we got. Get that old slave-boy to help you. Put him to work. I’ll put the saws to use when me and Augustus get home.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Boy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You do like I said? You gun down runners? Don’t need no witnesses popping up on me now.”

Charles give a pause before saying, “Yes, sir. I done like you said.”

Daddy turnt to me. “He telling the truth?”

“He is, sir. Gunned down a mess of them sumbitches, sir.”

Daddy smiled that horrible smile of his. “Boys, we’s Tennysons. That means something after tonight. That means a whole hell of a lot after tonight. Just you wait and see.”

We begun our travels. Me and Daddy going our way. Charles and Douglas going theirs. I hated the two of them. They was going home. I wasn’t no fan of the rice farm, but at least it had Momma. I never wanted to be next to that woman so much in my life.

I set beside the Devil. I felt an imp crawling through my veins and innards. I give a thought on how long it would take me to be like Daddy, more demon than human. I done kilt three people, and I even felt good and righteous for gunning down one of them. The others I kilt by accident, and the last boy out of mercy. I didn’t know which killing stood for the real and true me.