Glassies
Glassies
The dog showed up when I was sittin’ by the big window eatin’ my peanut butter apple. Dogs ain’t allowed here no more. That’s against the law now. I was about to tell Pa but... he’d shoot that son-of-a-dump, string him up, and burn him faster than you could yell, Don’t Pa, he ain’t got it, he ain’t got it! Even though he probably did.Â
Ferk that dog, Pa would say.
Ferk that ferkin’ dog, Pa would say.
Dogs got the disease now. It’s the ferkin’ transparent disease. People got it after the dogs. And the dogs got it after the crows got it. They don’t know where the crows got it from. It weren’t somethin’ you got by breathin’ it in the air. You had to touch someone to get it. Makes your skin all see-through after a while, then you start hurtin’ like heck, then you start bleedin’ all over.
Then you cry.
Then you die.
Jam said that.
I don’t want to get that ferkin’ disease. No way, no how. Makes your skin look like glass, and people can see inside you. They call ‘em Glassies now. If you’re a Glassy, you gonna die. Simple fact. You can’t hardly tell if a crow or a dog got it. They got feathers and fur.
Feathers and fur.
Got it, for sure.
Pa says that a lot.
Pa must have killed a hunnerd crows and forty-some dogs with his long gun ’fore he put up that fence. Took him a long time, but he did it. Just him and sometimes Mister Jeffrey. Eight foot high, all around the house and yard. Me and my sister Jam would watch him all day puttin’ up that fence. Every once in a while he would pick up his long gun and shoot a crow, blow a snot rocket, then get back to his work.
Ferkin’ crows, me and Jam would hear him say.
Most days Pa made me stay inside, but sometimes I helped him and Mister Jeffrey on that fence. But the crows can fly over the fence, I told Pa. Pa stopped his diggin’ and he spit in the dirt. He just squint his eyes and looked at me like I was a nimwit. Then he smiled at Mister Jeffrey and got back to work.
Fence ain’t for the crows, boy, Pa told me that night after supper.
That fence for the ferkin’ dogs.
And the ferkin’ people.
That dog came up the fence, on the inside, on our property. How did he get in on our side? Can’t answer that one. It’d take all my brain to answer that one. I should call Jam. She would know, she a lot smarter than me, she got to go to school, back when there was school. She also older by two whole years. But I need to see what that dog up to ’fore I go tellin’ on him.
That ferkin’ dog stopped his runnin’ and set about diggin’ a hole not fifty feet from my window. He got it. He got it, for sure. I ain’t about to touch that dog. He was all mangy and ugly. Ferkin’ dog. I ate up the rest of the apple Ma gave me.
Eat this so you can get smart like your sister.
Eat it up now, Calvin.
Ferkin’ dog was diggin’ that hole like there was a gold mine down there. I knew there weren’t no gold mine, I ain’t that stupid. Jam told me one time that girls go to heaven and little boys go to h-e-double-l, but I didn’t believe that trick. No way. But maybe there was a gold mine. It’s possible. Maybe. I didn’t really know for sure.Â
Jam!
Jam, come quick!
Jam was readin’ when I called her over. Jam was always readin’ books. They take you places, she tells me. They take you all sorts of magical places. I ain’t read one single book yet, so I don’t get to go nowhere but this here farm. Ma reads her magazine with the shiny people. Pa reads his TV Guide.
What you want?
Just get yourself over here and see.
I know Jam gonna take her sweet time over. I got to finish this chapter, she always say when I need her for somethin’. That’s why I called her early, before the dog finished his diggin’. See, I ain’t that stupid, I just ain’t found my callin’ yet, Ma says. That dog’s the stupid one. That’s one stupid, ferkin’, mangy, diseased mess of a dog, right there.
What can that mangy mess of a dog be up to? I gotta use my ’magination. Ma tells me that all the time, Use your ’magination. Pa tells me that too, but he say, Use your God-given brain, nimwit. So I set to thinkin’ real hard why that dumb dog was diggin’ on our side of the fence Pa put up.
What the heck for, Cal? I said to myself.
What the heck for?
Jam come over then, and we watched that ferkin’ dog. He was jumpin’ and throwin’ hisself at the fence like he really did find a gold mine. That stupid mutt was a-yippin’ and a-yappin’ and throwin’ hisself on the ground and against the fence. He finished diggin’ that hole and saw what was inside of it. Then he went all crazy like.
Jam, ’member when Pa found the shiny space rock? Miss Laura from channel seven come up and asked him questions. He was on TV. Jam said it weren’t no gold mine, but now I’m thinking it is. It’s gotta be, I seen it in my brain.Â
We gonna be on TV.
No, we ain’t.
That’s when we heard the shot, and the dog’s head exploded. That ferkin’ dog dumped right there on the ground. Dead as a doorknob. Pa came up and took him by the back leg, drug him over to the rusty oil can, and threw him in. He splashed some gas in there and set that stupid dog on fire.
He weren’t wearin’ gloves.
Why, Pa?
Why?
Me and Jam and Ma went outside so we could look at the hole and see what was in there. We could smell that stupid, mangy dog burnin’. Pa come up then, and Ma kissed his cheek.
Ferkin’ dog, Pa said.
Ferkin’ mangy, old, stupid dog, I said.
We all looked in that hole that stupid dog dug up. Ma started cryin’ and went back in the house. Jam said that’s the grossest thing she ever did see. Pa said, Stupid, ferkin’ dog. I just stared at it.
It weren’t no gold mine.
Thank you again for joining in this month. As always, a great trip into a new world with a distinct voice and vivid characters.
Outstandingly good - excellent dialogue - bleakly fascinating -