Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.63.0607241249470.26569@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>,
Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>, WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu
Subject: Story
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:50:03 -0400 (EDT)
Story Who have you ever heard her call? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you God? Annie faltered; she was an atheist and who knows what Travis really thought of her. His fate rested in her hands, her mind, her large and widening eyes, as she recalled the moment of the crime. But the soldiers were asking for it, and it only took a second; once their backs were turned, it was easy. And the rest was easy too. I'll testify, she said, under any god that pleases you! He screamed, but she ignored him. He would walk with a limp for the rest of his life the doctors told him, but he would walk, and eventually he would walk without pain. He shifted in the courtroom, unhappy with the way events were going. "You fucked me," he screamed, "you fucking used me, and then you fucked me some more! You dirty bitch!" Her eyes widened and for just a moment she looked both startled and guilty ~ Naughty Annie instead of Nasty Annie. She broke down and was carried out; he broke down and was carried out. Later, after his suicide, she asked whether he said anything at all, absolution or prayer, before he died. Proctor said "He muttered something that meant nothing ~ something that meant only get out of here, dream voice, get gone." Her eyes widened more. "And I did," he added. "And so should you." Annie tore at herself, clawed her breasts, blood running down her chest, everywhere like a bad dream. "Take me" she said, "take me now," to "Virginia" Sandpiper, who had sent five more (the first four with additional Polaroids) before finally lapsing into puzzled, slightly hurt silence. The photos laid on the floor all around her. She was one of the disappeared. All the ID had vanished. Annie's eyes widened at the thought that finally she'd act on her own; Sidewinder - the cause of the problem - was next. Sidewinder was downhill and the road would be slippery in the rain and it was darker than a mineshaft; he meant to try it all the same. Annie followed. There were perhaps seventy acres of open ground between the house and the edge of the forest ~ the snow-cover over it was a perfect and blazing white. Annie could see perfectly; eyes widened, she aimed, squeezed, and pulled the trigger. One of them would die. +++