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.Then he let Pike Gifford have it whack! whack! across his exaggerated manhood.Pike’s manhood was now no longer numb.A whipping belt carried more clout than a whipping wind.He screamed and then fell backward, onto Vinal’s arms as they steered the car.The steering wheel cut a smooth arc to the left and the shark obeyed the command.The Plymouth plummeted off the road and bounced down a short embankment, taking down a handful of inch-wide saplings and catching up clusters of dead burdocks around the axle.The oil pan dropped off, like a discarded, messy slop pail, and lay quietly in the brown grass.The motor died away and in its place the songs of the birds rang clear.***“Do you see now what I’m telling you?” Randy Ivy asked his sisters, as none of the three grandchildren could possibly ignore the Plymouth once it buzzed past them and hovered like a demented hummingbird alongside the car ahead.“What drug could possibly be worse for me than a week in this town?”“Wow,” Regina said softly.“Do you suppose Daddy really did hire professional mourners?”***“Stop crying, Claire,” Winnie finally found the voice to say.“You weren’t manhandled, for heaven’s sake.”***“You can still count on the Giffords for a little excitement,” Pearl said with positive enthusiasm.“I think Marvin is looking down right now and laughing his head off.I think Marvin would enjoy this.”“Junior took care of those scofflaws,” Thelma bragged.Her husband was fitting the belt around his massive stomach once again.“I got to buy myself a belly toner,” Junior said, pretending a wish to change the subject.Maybe he would sign up for lessons at Southern Maine School of Karate.One never knew when such things could come in handy.Especially if a man, a Junior, had to protect his family now that the Senior was gone.“They really are something, aren’t they?” Amy Joy said to her aunt Pearl, and they exchanged a knowing giggle.They’re just giving us some mud to wash off, Amy Joy, Pearl could have said to her niece, but didn’t.She could tell Amy Joy already knew.They’re doing their job, so that we can do ours.***Vinal and Pike sat drinking beer and enjoying the peaceful spring view afforded them by the Plymouth’s plunge down the embankment.They had come to a quick stop where the small poplars were leaning inward, shading the brook, and the old pussy willows were still clinging tenaciously, furry kittens, to the willow trees.“Beautiful day, ain’t it?” Pike spoke first.“Yep,” said Vinal.“Won’t be long now and we can go fishing.”“Yep.”“Are you mad?”“You might say I’m embarrassed.”“But, Vinal,” Pike insisted, “he caught me a hell of a wallop.I probably still got marks on my wanger.”“Did you have to fall on me?”“Where could I fall?” Pike flailed his arms for emphasis.“Into the goddamn car full of McKinnons? Into the hearse?”“You made us look like two fools,” Vinal said, and snapped an empty out into the dead hay.From the trees over the landlocked shark, tiny warblers let their spring songs burst from their throats.Fresh leaves shimmered, casting a mottled shadow down upon the peeling roof of the Plymouth.“It sure is pretty, though, ain’t it?” Pike asked after a few more minutes and another beer had passed between the brothers.“Look at it this way.We hardly take time out of our schedules to get back to nature, as they say nowadays.Let’s just consider this an opportunity to get to know our environment.”Vinal drank more beer and thought about this.“Besides,” said Pike, “there ain’t nothing me or nobody else can do to make you look like a fool.Not my big brother!” Vinal smiled, the tiny brown cave of decay between his front teeth peeping out to say hello to Pike.A good sign, Pike knew, when he saw that brown spot emerge.Pike sang along with the birds of spring, now that social things were settled.“‘One little girl in a pale pink coat heard.Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo.’ Can we still get us an eight-track?” he asked Vinal.“I suppose,” said Vinal, jovial again.“But we better get us some motor oil first.”***When the northern raven swirled over Mattagash in his blessed current, he saw the Plymouth, a new sight for that wooded area.He knew the territory well, thanks to his swift intelligence and roving eyes
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