Read Online Beneath Ceaseless Skies #172 by E. Catherine Tobler, Erin Cashier, Shannon Peavey - Free Book Online Page B
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tender. Instead, he said, “I love you, brother.”
He placed Cary’s head upright in the hole, and he began to fill it in again.
Cary stared up at him the whole time he was filling in the hole and said nothing. He seemed to know there was nothing more to say. He squeezed his eyes shut when the dirt rose up around his nose and made a noise like a hurt animal.
Leo couldn’t get the dirt to lie flat over Cary’s head. There was a little mound there, next to the palo verde, and it looked like what it was. A tiny grave. But he didn’t think many people would come looking out here. So he touched the loose dirt one last time, with the tips of his fingers, and then he got back to his feet.
Morning was coming. On its eastern edge, the sky started to tint a lighter grey, and the stars washed out one by one.
* * *
Leo straggled back to camp, covered in dirt and holding his brother’s empty jar in his hand. People stacking crates into the wagons stared at him with naked curiosity in their eyes, but no one stopped him. He walked back to where the artifacts from the DEPRAVED TREASURES tent had been kept and nestled the empty jar into a box filled with wood shavings.
“I wondered where that had gotten off to,” the Colonel said.
Leo turned to face him. He thought he should feel ashamed, maybe, or afraid. But he didn’t.
The Colonel looked at the empty jar, and then he looked back at Leo. Leo couldn’t read the expression on his face.
Finally, the Colonel said, “You know, it was spooky how much that thing looked like you. I don’t know if I could look at my own face like that, day in and day out. Not stuck in a jar for suckers to point and stare at.”
He stepped forward and clapped Leo on the shoulder and smiled.
Leo licked his lips. His mouth was so dry, filled with grit and the metal tang of grave dirt. The Colonel would want him to say something. But he couldn’t. Just couldn’t.
He looked up at the Colonel’s kind, easy, salesman’s smile. And for the first time, he couldn’t say anything at all.
Copyright © 2015 Shannon Peavey
Read Comments on this Story on the BCS Website
Shannon Peavey
is a writer and horse trainer from Seattle, Washington. Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction , Apex , and Writers of the Future 29 and is forthcoming in Lightspeed . She can be found on twitter @shannonpv.
Read more Beneath Ceaseless Skies
COVER ART
“Bandits Assault a Stagecoach,” by Ignacio Bazán Lazcano
Ignacio Bazán Lazcano has worked for major game companies around the world (Sabarasa, NGD, Global Fun, Gameloft, Time Gate) on numerous titles for PS3, XBOX, and PC (Section 8, Section 8 Prejudice, Aliens: Colonial Marines) and has authored publications in journals and books such as Digital Painting Techniques, 2dartist Magazine, 3DTotal, and Digital Art Masters. View more of his work online at deviantArt.com .
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
ISSN: 1946-1046
Published by Firkin Press,
a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Literary Organization
Copyright © 2015 Firkin Press
This file is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 U.S. license . You may copy and share the file so long as you retain the attribution to the authors, but you may not sell it and you may not alter it or partition it or transcribe it.
He placed Cary’s head upright in the hole, and he began to fill it in again.
Cary stared up at him the whole time he was filling in the hole and said nothing. He seemed to know there was nothing more to say. He squeezed his eyes shut when the dirt rose up around his nose and made a noise like a hurt animal.
Leo couldn’t get the dirt to lie flat over Cary’s head. There was a little mound there, next to the palo verde, and it looked like what it was. A tiny grave. But he didn’t think many people would come looking out here. So he touched the loose dirt one last time, with the tips of his fingers, and then he got back to his feet.
Morning was coming. On its eastern edge, the sky started to tint a lighter grey, and the stars washed out one by one.
* * *
Leo straggled back to camp, covered in dirt and holding his brother’s empty jar in his hand. People stacking crates into the wagons stared at him with naked curiosity in their eyes, but no one stopped him. He walked back to where the artifacts from the DEPRAVED TREASURES tent had been kept and nestled the empty jar into a box filled with wood shavings.
“I wondered where that had gotten off to,” the Colonel said.
Leo turned to face him. He thought he should feel ashamed, maybe, or afraid. But he didn’t.
The Colonel looked at the empty jar, and then he looked back at Leo. Leo couldn’t read the expression on his face.
Finally, the Colonel said, “You know, it was spooky how much that thing looked like you. I don’t know if I could look at my own face like that, day in and day out. Not stuck in a jar for suckers to point and stare at.”
He stepped forward and clapped Leo on the shoulder and smiled.
Leo licked his lips. His mouth was so dry, filled with grit and the metal tang of grave dirt. The Colonel would want him to say something. But he couldn’t. Just couldn’t.
He looked up at the Colonel’s kind, easy, salesman’s smile. And for the first time, he couldn’t say anything at all.
Copyright © 2015 Shannon Peavey
Read Comments on this Story on the BCS Website
Shannon Peavey
is a writer and horse trainer from Seattle, Washington. Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction , Apex , and Writers of the Future 29 and is forthcoming in Lightspeed . She can be found on twitter @shannonpv.
Read more Beneath Ceaseless Skies
COVER ART
“Bandits Assault a Stagecoach,” by Ignacio Bazán Lazcano
Ignacio Bazán Lazcano has worked for major game companies around the world (Sabarasa, NGD, Global Fun, Gameloft, Time Gate) on numerous titles for PS3, XBOX, and PC (Section 8, Section 8 Prejudice, Aliens: Colonial Marines) and has authored publications in journals and books such as Digital Painting Techniques, 2dartist Magazine, 3DTotal, and Digital Art Masters. View more of his work online at deviantArt.com .
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
ISSN: 1946-1046
Published by Firkin Press,
a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Literary Organization
Copyright © 2015 Firkin Press
This file is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 U.S. license . You may copy and share the file so long as you retain the attribution to the authors, but you may not sell it and you may not alter it or partition it or transcribe it.
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