Sleet Seasonal Supplement — Summer 2011
The grandfather was dying of cancer. He sat in his rocking chair all day, holding onto the armrests. When he tried to get up, or if he leaned the wrong way, he screamed.
The boys came to visit him on Saturdays. They couldn't believe anyone cold be in so much pain. When he screamed too loud, they went into the kitchen and waited for him to stop. If he didn't, one of them quietly imitated his sounds and the others snickered. But the boys were careful not to let him hear them, even if he was only faking the pain to get their pity.
Their grandfather behaved more strangely with each visit. One day he asked them to put a pulley on the ceiling and to lower a hook to put in his nose and hoist him out of his chair. Another time he yelled, I must shit! but the grown-ups closed the windows so no one could hear him and said, You have not eaten, there is no reason.
When spring came, he said, I am going to die before the weather gets hot. He wanted to say in bed and to have the house quiet. He asked the boys to come into his bedroom and shake hands with him, but their grip made him scream so loud that they quickly left for the kitchen.
Then a mourning dove built her nest outside his bedroom window. Her cooing woke him from his fitful naps. He cursed at the bird in his hollow voice.
On their next visit the boys brought their BB gun. One climbed the tree where the mourning dove nested on her eggs. The beak stuck over the edge of the nest. He shot the mourning dove in the throat, and it flapped wildly to the ground. He threw the eggs down for the other boys to smash while the mourning dove fluttered and bled in the grass.
The boys brought the dead bird inside and held it up for their grandfather. They extended their arms toward him, each of them holding part of the bird's wings between his fingers, so he could see that this gift was from all of them.
Reprinted from The One-Room Schoolhouse, Stories About the Boys, 1994, Vintage Books, with special permission from the author.
Jim Heynen has two books forthcoming from Milkweed Editions: The Fall of '99, a novel, and Ordinary Sins, a collection of short-shorts. He lives in St. Paul.