Quetzalcoatl Ch. 05

I made my way towards them through the high grass and they took to flight as I got near.

Sure enough, still dressed in her housedress, was grandma.

Her mouth was agape and her skin was pulled tight against her bones from being out in the sun for who knows how long.

There was something else. Something had been eating her, and it wasn't just the crows.

Her eyes were missing out of her head.

I went back to the garage and found an old plastic tarp, and a spade. I wrapped her small frail body in the tarp and placed it in the back of the pickup truck. I didn't want mom to see her like this, but I also didn't rush to do what I had to do. It would take me hours to dig a grave.

As I dug the hole I thought about what I had done to my mother last night. Maybe it was the alcohol that made me act so cruelly, or maybe it was Quetzalcoatl. Whichever it was, digging this grave was definitely my penance.

I could see the whole house from where I was and I could also see the driveway.

About fifteen minutes into my punishment I saw something move up the drive. I knew it was an animal, but I didn't know what kind at first. Then I realized it was a dog. A pure white German Shepard.

I wasn't alarmed. You could tell by the dog's demeanor that it wasn't vicious. It was looking for something, probably food, and it was paying strict attention to the house.

It didn't notice me, so I gave a low whistle to alert it. It jumped at first, but then it just stood there looking at me. I didn't want to intimidate it, so I looked away and I started digging the hole again.

I had always heard that dogs interpreted eye-to-eye contact as a threat, so I made sure to keep it in my peripheral vision. It circled around behind me and lay in the tall grass some twenty yards away.

A while later mom came to the back stoop. This was what I had dreaded since we started on this trip. She waved to me and I waved back, but I kept digging. She slowly walked through the tall grass to where I was.

"What are you doing Ed?" She asked as she got near. I stopped digging and just looked at her. "What? Why are you digging a hole Ed?"

"Mom, come here." I had the blue plastic tarp in my sight.

"What Ed? What's the matter? You're scaring me."

"Ma, I found Grandma."

"Oh my God. No Ed." She started to shake. "Where?"

"Here. On the ground."

"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no," she started to cry. I dropped the shovel and I walked over to her slowly. "Oh my god Ed. She's dead?" She was crying.

"Yes Mom, she's gone."

"Oh God no. Oh God no." She was shaking with grief. "She died all alone. Out here all alone?" I just held her in my arms and let her go on. "She died out here all alone, and I wasn't here for her. Oh my God Mom I'm so sorry." I felt a lump in my throat, and I started to cry.

"Where is she Ed?"

"I had nothing to wrap her in Mom. So I wrapped her in a tarp."

"In this old tarp?" she said with horror. "Oh God no Ed."

"It's just for now Ma, until we find something appropriate."

"I want to see her Ed." She was half out of her mind.

"No you don't Ma."

"Yes I need to see her." She insisted, and she headed for the body in the blue tarp, but I held her tight.

"Ma, she's not in any condition."

"What does that mean Ed?" She stared up at me.

"I mean she's not in any condition for you to see her."

"Not in any condition for me to see? What does that mean?" She was incoherent.

"She's been out here for a while Ma. I can't let you see her." With that she just broke down and cried. I had to carry her bodily back into the house. It was an hour before I got her under control.

Later I went out the back door and started digging the grave again. The white dog was still out there in the grass and she watched me as I toiled.

By noon the hole was about four foot. It's not the customary six-foot, but I was sick of digging graves. The dog never left my view. It had to be starving, although it didn't look very gaunt.

I walked back to the house and she followed at a safe distance. I wouldn't look at her straight on, but just kept her in the corner of my eye. I went in and got a drink of water and then searched through the pantry for her. I found a big can of beef stew, opened it and came outside with the stew, two bowls and the jug of water.

I put the stew in one bowl and some water in the other. I then put the bowls in the yard about twenty feet from the house. I sat on the wooden steps behind the house watching the dog.

She could smell the food, but she wouldn't come in right away. Her snout kept sniffing at the air as she paced back and forth. Slowly, methodically, she came closer and closer as she felt safer. I didn't move except to take a drink from the water jug.

She was still wary, but hunger finally won over caution, and she came in to eat. She was fantastic, pure white without the slightest blemish on her coat, and tremendous. She had to be at least a hundred pounds. She was bigger than most male Shepherds.

Mom came to the back screen while the dog was eating. "What's this? A dog?"

"Shhhhh," I scolded her. "I just got her to trust me." The dog didn't seem to be frightened of my mother.

"Where did she come from?"

"I don't know. She just appeared while I was digging."

"Poor thing. She must have been hungry."

"Yeah, but she doesn't look like she has missed too many meals."

"No. She looks healthy." The dog finished the food and then just lay down in the grass. She didn't look directly at us, but you could tell she was watching us. "Well," my mother continued. "We now have a dog. What will we call it?"

"Al Shabah." I said with pride.

"The ghost! Perfect. It suits her." Mom said and walked back into the house.

Mom and I said our prayers over grandma's body as best we could. Mom had made a shroud out of old linen tablecloths, and I was able to get her out of the tarp without mom having to see. We buried her as the sun was starting to go down, and we stayed until it was getting too dark to see.

That night I sat on the porch alone, drinking more of grandma's wine. The dog sat in front of me in the grass, watching over the fields, and her ears picked up for the slightest of sounds.

"You'll be a good watchdog, if you stay," I said to her softly. The dog looked at me as if she knew what I was saying. "I hope you do. I could use a friend." I finished another glass of wine, and then headed inside. Although I held the door open for the dog, it preferred to sleep outside.

"Suit yourself," I said through the screen door. I closed the main door and locked it, before I headed for my bedroom on the first floor. Mom was already asleep upstairs. This was the first day that we didn't have sex.