There’s something past that shed, I heard it, Uncle.
Let’s go on and look then. I don’t want no more of them bastards gettin in.
I aint seen any around here no more, Danny said. I think its too smelly in there for them, trying to get Uncle to go back inside. Danny knew what might happen if Uncle saw those possums.
Bird thought Uncle didn’t have the heart to kill one in front of Danny, so he stayed quiet.
Uncle told the boys to stay put, continued walking behind the shed, and went only a few steps before going awfully quiet.
Can you hear anything? Danny asked Bird, but he didn’t answer. Bird walked back in the direction of the house, so Danny found a rock to throw at his back to get his attention. Danny wound his arm and pictured the rock hitting the ground yards away from Bird: unscathed. Danny stamped his feet and took off in Bird’s direction.
Why hasn’t he said anything? Danny looked up, asking the back of Bird’s swaying head, still walking.
He’s probably just trying to scare us.
Shit, you’re right.
Don’t say shit, Danny.
Someone shot. Danny’s head and neck cracked back, neck despair. Eyes wincing, he moaned, and the ring and sting in his ears made his mouth open.
They figured it came from Uncle, but they couldn’t go back to look. Danny was still clutching his head as Bird dragged him by the shoulders into the house.
Bird threw Danny on the couch and looked in his eyes. They were bloodshot and had tears in them.
I’m going to check on Uncle.
No! Stay here, Birdy, I don’t wanna be alone.
Bird knew he wasn’t lying, and if Uncle did find and shoot the possum, he didn’t want to help clean it anyway.
Alright, I’ll stay then. But if he don’t come back in an hour or two, we should go look to see what happened.
Sure, Bird, we oughta go check on him at some point.
The boys sat about still on the coach for a while. Bird had cut on the TV, but the news was weird to watch without adults around, and there was nothing good on Disney. Bird left it running on some infomercial channel. Danny was napping, in and out of sleep, and he kept getting woken up by a dream.
Bird was chewing on his lip when Danny woke up fully. Bird shot him a funny look, and they laughed nervously, knowing they’d have to go ahead and check for Uncle.
What if he’s dead?
He aint dead, Danny. He walks off sometimes.
Yeah, but he usually comes back by now.
Well then, he probably just walked off somewhere really far.
Danny stood up and fell back down on the couch. He slept funny on his leg, and it felt dead asleep. Bird was looking out the window when Danny finally got the feeling back.
Is he out there?
No.
I think he’s dead.
Well, let’s go check.
Bird peered his head out the door first, slowly, and he cleared the area immediately outside the front door. He looked over at the shed and knew all they could do was look.
Let’s go, Danny.
Alright, Bird.
They didn’t hear anything behind the shed anymore; there was a quiet in the air that hadn’t been heard since the cicadas started howling earlier that morning. Bird could see what looked like boot prints in the mud getting closer to the shed. They went around the back, where Uncle walked over to. The shade from the shed kept the ground a bit softer, and the prints stopped about halfway down the backside of the shed. There were some fluffy white hairs strewn about where the last few boot prints were. It looked like someone had shaved a damn animal, but Bird couldn’t tell what kind. He also saw the blood dappled and pooled around the hair. It was dark as the mud, and he didn’t know where that blood came from either. There was a smell, but Bird figured it was the blood. Bird didn’t realize Danny was behind him and turned to see Danny’s mouth agape.
Birdy, I don’t think this shit is right.
Danny, don’t say shit. I think you’re right.
The boys walked into town from home. It was only a few minutes, and Bird wanted to ask anyone if they had heard the gunshot from earlier. There was a police station near the church, next to the Dollar Tree. They hadn’t eaten much all day, so Bird bought some chips at Dollar Tree to share with Danny. Before leaving the store, Bird asked the cashier if she had heard a gunshot earlier.
What did she say? Danny asked, chips spilling out of his mouth, sitting on the front curb outsidethe store.
She said, ‘Yeah, but it was probably nothing.’
Maybe, but shit Birdy, nothing don’t bleed.
They never found Uncle. We left Florida and moved to San Francisco to live with our mom’s cousin. She was nicer, and she didn’t go walking off as much as Uncle did. Bird found out that they call what happened to Uncle the Blood of ‘02 from a newspaper in Tampa. A bunch of people on the internet thought he was taken by something called the swamp ape, but we didn’t even live near the swamp. I think Bird was right when he said he walked off somewhere really far that time. That day, I dreamed he went to a town that was underwater. In that town, they did a bunch of funny things, they had giants, and they smoked cigarettes the other way. I know Uncle liked to smoke cigarettes, but if he did go to that town, maybe he stayed because he liked smoking them the other way.
Writer | Jorge Rodríguez Jr. ‘26 | jrodriguezjr26@amherst.edu
Editor | Rivkah Lefkowitz ‘27 | ylefkowitz27@amherst.edu
Artist | Jorge Rodríguez Jr. ‘26 | jrodriguezjr26@amherst.edu