cats and rats

flames lick and lap and scorch and seeth. carrie's face is slick and oily. her mother raises the knife in a final death arc. as she swoops- BANG!

i jolt and scream. stare at the t.v. screen to verify. no, carrie's mom didn't suddenly pull out a glock. she stabbed her eerie kid. but i heard a gunshout. a loud retort coming from my living room. scared witless, i whisper call- "terry?"

laughter flows through her voice as she calls back "it's okay, honey, come out here."

a large round hole now resides in the sliding glass door. golden goofily holds a shot gun. my dad and terry drunkenly behold his handiwork. "goddamn if that thing didn't just go off."

i put a finger up to the jagged hole. peer through to the pasture. and spot it. a little calico cat.

"dad, look, there's a cat in the pasture."

he quick grabs the shotgun from golden and tears open the screen door. "BAM BAM BAM" i don't look, but i know the cat got dead for sure.

i give my dad the death stare. the stare reserved for well.. cat killers and puppy stranglers. he squares off his jaw and gives me a hard look back.

"you sent that cat to his grave."

"no."

"oh yeah, you did, kid. you ratted him out. nobody likes a rat. remember that."

i never did quite figure out the lesson in that one. but i never alerted my dad to the presence of barnyard animals again, either.

so there's that.