| "The Reunion" |
| Page 12 |
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| At four o'clock, with still no sign of Shoo-Fly, she had put down the catalogue and risen from the lawn chair. From her vantage point she could see all the neighboring yards with the exception of the yard to the left of the house...which was shrouded by a huge, gray wooden fence. Standing on tip toes and shielding her eyes from the late afternoon sun, she looked as far as eyesight allowed, but the small brown cottontail was nowhere in sight. A neighbor called out wishing her a Happy Mother's Day. She had returned the wave and the greeting. |
| The elderly lady shivered in her rocker as hot tears travelled down her face, making the coldness of her body feel even more severe. "Shoo", she whispered hoarsely. "My beautiful baby. My beautiful friend." The next thirty minutes of that day came upon her like a flood. She remembered looking toward the gray fence. The yard hosted three fruit trees..., a large and a small apple tree and a pear tree. Many times she had seen Shoo come through the loose board in the fence in order to get into her yard. The neighbor who owned the house had told her that she often saw Shoo-Fly feeding between the large and small apple tree. "Maybe that is where he has been keeping himself", she thought as she walked toward the fence. An uncomfortable buzzing noise had reached her ears as she approached the fence, growing louder with each step that she took. "What on earth...", she had wondered. But then, drawing closer, she had seen the top of the source of the sound. Flies. It sounded like hundreds of them. She placed her hand on the picket fence in amazement. What could be attracting them like that this time of year? The fruit wasn't even in season yet from the trees...... The newly installed windchime suddenly tinkled, diverting her attention. Turning back to the task at hand, she rose up on her toes and looked over the fence and into the yard. There on the ground, between two trees, lay a rabbit... so still, except for the buzzing of the flies over the lifeless body. She didn't remember screaming, but she must have, for her husband came running to the side of the house asking what was wrong. Sobbing she had pointed in the direction of the trees. "There is something dead in Pam's yard", she had told him. Something dead. She could not bring herself to say "Shoo". Coming to the fence of the neighboring yard and finding the gate open, her husband had entered the yard and walked to the trees. As if frozen she stood by the fence and watched as he knelt down on the ground near the little brown body, shooing the flies away with his hand. Two words escaped his lips and she knew. "Oh, no!" Twice more he uttered those two words. Moving from her post, she had started toward the gate, the tears not having even begun to consume her as they would later that day and in the days to come. Upon seeing her,her husband had risen from his kneeling position. "Get back!!" he had ordered in a tone she had never really heard him use before. "Get back!" he repeated. "Don't come over here. Get in the house." She saw his face, now wet with tears of his own. He placed his hand on the fence. "Go in the house", he had said again, but quietly this time. "I'll take care of him." "I want to see him", she said as the tears began to start. "No, you don't", he had said, purposely trying to block her view. "Maybe it's not Shoo?" she had asked hopefully. Her husband had not uttered a word... but his look said it all. He was very certain it was Shoo-Fly. |
| "Still he lay between two trees... Still he lay, now gone from me." |
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| Bunny Link Page 13 |