part 6
the water tank
It's like a dream from there. The buckshot exploded and the pellets ripped through Herc's face and chest. He went backwards, a spray of gore raining around. Jobe bit down on Herc's corpse, shaking his head wildly. I fired again. Reload. Fire. Reload. Fire.
They never show you that, in movies that don't have an adult rating. A shotgun with buckshot does a lot of damage close up. It shreds and tears and rips, leaving behind a state of carnage so brutal it's almost pretty. I was in a haze as I walked back to the front door, undid the lock, and stepped out. My slaughter pile still dripping outside the window, bits and pieces flung out onto the yard. But I'd only got four dogs in the end, and we had another. I found Boof had dragged himself around the side of the house, whining and growling all the same.
"Boof?" I asked, lowering the gun a little. I'd known this dog since he was a puppy.
Boof let out a ferocious growl and jerkily moved towards me, the fecal smell in the air a sign that I'd hit him in the guts before. I fired, watched his body ragdoll away before settling, slumping.
I barely remember going back inside and putting the gun on the table for Vav. I remember her patting me on the back as she stared at the dogs remains, before she took a step back.
I vomited all over myself, and was a sobbing mess. Vav simply petted me on the shoulder until I was done, then pushed me into the shower.
Once I came out, Vav was sitting at the table cleaning her wounds.
"You hurt?" she asked.
"No."
"Help me, then." I helped her splint her wrist and wrap it, and then we both stood outside with cans of coke, watching the flies swarm over the bodies.
"It's too hot to leave them." She said.
"I'll do it." I said. Vav couldn't, not with her wrist all swollen and fucked up.
I picked up the smaller pieces and put them into trash bags, and then wrapped the rest in tarps and put them in the truck tray as well. It was gross, a couple of times the tarp slipped and a thick paste of hot blood and torn tissue would slide down my shoulders, chest, and back, and flies kept buzzing around my head, trying my eyes and mouth for moisture.
We dumped the bodies at the edge of the property; Vav said that the dogs didn't belong to us anymore. We didn't have a right to bury them. She asked if I wanted to go back to my mum. I told her no.
"What did this?" I asked. Vav laughed.
"You should leave the country." She said instead. I ignored her.
"Vav, what the fuck did that? Stop lying to me!" Vav laughed some more.
"Let's see, then, Blue." She made a call to the water company to bring a tanker out to refill our tank. They said they'd be there in two days, so we showered and prepared to not shower again until it was refilled.
We hosed down the Verandah first. Then she ran the shower, the kitchen sink, and the outside taps for hours. All night we sat there and listened to the water drain.
"It'll be in there." She said the next day, her bare toes in the yard that was now more of a swamp. It would have dried fairly quickly, what with the heat and sun. She handed me a couple of towels. "Don't touch whatever is down there with your hands."
I pulled on a backpack with the towels, and climbed the ladder to the top. I opened the tank. There was a ladder on the inside going down for cleaning. It was pretty much empty, with a little under a foot of water left.
I shone a small torch into the water but couldn't see anything, so I moved my foot around in the water, when I bumped something. I nearly screamed when I felt the slide of the snake under my foot, but it didn't move. I pulled out a towel and reached down. I pulled it up. It was heavy, almost as long as I was tall, and had several bulges in its middle.
I wrapped it as much as I could, shrugging off the backpack before putting the snake inside, then putting it on my back again.
The water that had soaked into the material licked down my spine, ass, and legs.
I kicked around some more but there was nothing else. Once I was down I pulled the snake out and Vav used a stick to poke the snake out until it was flat. She frowned and used part of the towel to hold the snake still, resting her injured hand on it, and made me hold the bottom half below the bulges, keeping it stretched and taut. She ran a knife down the belly, and the snake burst like a teddy bear with a busted seam, the bulges in the intestine made Vav swear, and she hacked at the snake until the smooth onyx stones were revealed. Almost egg-shaped, they were quite dark and smooth. I thought they were some sort of river stone.
"Well." She said. "It looks like he was right." Vav looked at me.
"It's going to take everything." We haven't had another dog since. Blue Mon 27 Jan 2014 07:07:49 No.14085370 Quoted By:
When I was fifteen, things started to get more real, as well as a lot more fucked.
Vav began to look more strained around the eyes. She was sleeping less. Drinking less, smiling less. The tall men made her laugh though.
"They won't hurt us." She said, "Those are the least of our worries." B
ut I did worry I'm going to share this next story with you, because, while not overly scary, it gives you an idea of the shit I've had to deal with while staying with Vav. Yes, the Christmas after the snake and stone incident was god awful.
Right after, Vav made more phone calls and some Aboriginal people came over, they left offerings at the gate, and didn't approach the house.
"They are calling good spirits here." She said. "But nothing is truly good, blue. Remember that." I became good friends with some of the kids from that party. Rabbit wasn't allowed to come to my house, but I could hang out if he was with Ethan and Daniel. Saul came over a couple of times, and while my house freaked him out a bit, Saul was a freak anyway so it was cool. Anyway, so, yeah, fifteen. Wow.
I was doing pretty average at school, just passing, and got contacted by police because nobody could find my dad and he wasn't paying child support- whatever.
Some of the aboriginals, and even the white kids at school started bullying me, calling me the white devil, or white serpent. Whatever. Fuckers. Saul thought it was hilarious.
"Why not give them something to be afraid of, white devil?"
And in hindsight, Saul is the fucking worst guy. He's still a
good friend of mine, but he is the fucking worst.
Once more, I found myself below Darwin near Vav's house.
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