A Familiarity with Brutality

Ethan and Aiden picked Sarah up at their usual time. She sheepishly turned her face away from them when they got close enough to see the bruised swelling that had already appeared. They both inspected it and asked numerous questions about what exactly led to the moment she fell, to which she could only reply that she couldn’t remember.

“It just… happened…” she said.

The boys dropped the inquiry and set off on their twenty-minute walk home. They were about halfway home when they saw vehicles ahead of them stopped on the side of the road. Aiden patted Sarah on the shoulder and jogged ahead.

“Probably car trouble!” he hollered back as he left.

Ethan and Sarah continued their slow walk.

“Feeling okay?” Ethan asked.

To his surprise, her answer wasn’t in jest.

“I’m okay, just dizzy, feel kinda funny,” she said in a weak tone.

Ethan noticed her skin was slightly more pale than usual.

Up ahead, Aiden reached the cars and saw a woman and child standing with an elderly couple near the ditch. The woman had one hand over her mouth and the other shielding her young son’s eyes. At their feet was a large dog, collapsed on its side, with its stomach ripped open and its intestines spread out in the grass at its feet. It was still alive, giving off a slight, pathetic whimper. Aiden slowed as he reached the group.

The old man saw him and nodded.

“Didn’t see it when we came around the bend,” he sadly murmured.

“Would’a swerved, but there was a car coming ‘long the way…”

The dog’s back legs moved in small circular motions as though trying to walk. It let out a cry and made an effort to lift itself onto its front paws. Behind them, Ethan and Sarah were getting closer.

“Sarah don’t look,” Aiden yelled out.

The sternness of his voice stopped her far enough away so that she could not see the gore.

“I ain’t got a gun in my truck,” said the older man.

Aiden shook his head. The mother nearby stepped towards them and spoke quietly.

“I called my husband, he has a rifle in his shop. He’s on the way over now from across the docks.”

“Take him over twenty minutes to get here,” said Aiden.

“It’ll bleed out by then,” said the man.

Beside them, the young boy was crying. He turned away in embarrassment and wiped his eyes when Aiden saw him. Aiden looked around. The older man’s truck was aged and battered, bearing all the signs of a journeyman laborer’s years of toil. A rust lined toolbox sat at the front of the truck bed, against the back window of the cabin.

“You got tools in there?” whispered Aiden.

The old man nodded.

Aiden approached the truck slowly and peered over the edge to see into the bed. Lying on the base of the bed were numerous heavy tools. Among them were a shovel and a sledgehammer. He backed away and went to the young boy. The boy looked away but Aiden smiled a sincere and gentle smile.

“I recognize you. You’re David aren’t you?” Aiden asked.

“I have class with Sarah,” said the boy.

“You do. You had class with her last year. And she told me you would sit under the tree in the pavilion when the weather was nice.”

The boy laughed slightly and wiped his nose.

“You’ve got great parents too. We see y’all in church all the time. And your father always shakes my hand every time we meet in public. He’s a good man.”

David nodded and wiped his eyes once more.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No need to apologize. Never apologize for crying when it matters. That innocent animal is hurting. You can cry over that. But listen, we’re going to help it okay. I’ve got a buddy coming now that works for a vet. They’re going to make him better okay?”

“Really?” asked David.

Aiden smiled.

“Now why don’t you and your mother head home. It’ll be okay.”

“We could give Sarah and Mr. Ethan a ride home,” volunteered David.

“Snow is starting to fall anyways,” said David’s mother.

“Thank you,” said Ethan as he and Sarah made their way to the car.

Sarah began to look at the scene of the accident but stopped herself. She eyed Aiden for a moment. Although he was smiling, his body was rigid and his fists were clenched. She closed the car door and looked away.

Then the four of them were in the vehicle. It lurched then pulled away, leaving only Aiden and the older man. Traffic moved past them slowly, momentarily stopping each time to check on the two of them. Once the car carrying Sarah and David was far enough away, Aiden returned to the truck and removed the sledgehammer and an old tarp from the bed.

“Son?” asked the older man.

“Not going to wait another twenty minutes for a goddamn rifle to get here. Putting it out of its misery,” said Aiden.

He reached the dog and squatted on his toes beside its back. It was matted and dirty: A mutt of some sort. It sighed and tried to turn its head to him but couldn’t, instead letting it fall to the ground again with a heavy thud. Pained pants came deep and slow, with a crackle of strain at the end of each breath. Aiden gently ran his hand along its neck. The dog smarted at his touch at first, then laid its head down once more and closed its eyes as it whimpered.

“I know, I know,” whispered Aiden.

“I’m sorry about this,” he said as he scratched it behind the ears. He opened his shoulder satchel and removed a paper bag containing the remnants of his lunch. He held a bit of leftover sandwich to the dog’s mouth.

“It’s not bad, really,” he said as he fed it to her.

The dog ate some, but most fell out of her mouth onto the ground. It began to whine. Aiden unscrewed his water bottle and poured some into the palm of his hand.

“Here, drink,” he said, placing his palm to the dog’s mouth, then slightly pouring it in as her dried tongue lapped what it could.

When it stopped, he wiped his hand on his jeans then laid out the tarp and gently slid it underneath as much of the dog’s body as he could without causing it pain. He made sure its head was over the tarp then scratched the dog’s chin once more. He turned and picked up the sledgehammer. He saw the old man watching with sad, aged eyes.

“My hands are steady, I promise it’ll be quick,” he said to the man.

The old man didn’t speak; he merely parted his lips and padded his handkerchief to his mouth as he turned away.

Aiden faced the dog and readied the sledgehammer in both hands. He set his feet firmly at the proper distance from the body and shifted his weight to compensate for the slope of the hill. Something in his eyes had shifted, and now the gentleness was gone. Now all that peered out from his sunken brow was a void.

In his hands, the hammer was light, and the wood toughened and easy to hold. The dog closed its eyes. In one smooth motion, Aiden lifted the sledgehammer and slammed it down with as much force as he could, crushing the dog’s skull immediately. Even without looking, the old man flinched at the sound of the splatter as bone and organ sprayed out under the impact.

Her legs kicked back when the impact hit, with her back paws coming up from the ground before both legs went rigid then all tension left. There was an exhaling sound that gurgled slightly as the last breath left her lungs. The scent of urine drifted up. Blood snaked down the sleet-slicked tarp, carrying pieces of fur and bone. The dog stopped moving and was dead. Aiden immediately laid the hammer down wrapped the carcass in the unfurled tarp. Once the body was enclosed and the tarp tied shut, he slowly lifted it as softly as possible and carried it into the woods along the ditch.

Visible puffs of warm white breath drifted about him and the lights of the streets and passing cars illuminated the outlines of dead trees around him and turned the isolated falling snowflakes into golden orbs. A single speck of red splatter painted his cheek but he didn’t even notice ad he went about his work. Dead tinder and frosted ground cracked beneath his steps, echoing out into the silent evening. The slow drudge of cautious tires on sludgy roads was the only other noise to be heard. He set the body on the ground and returned to the street to grab the shovel. Steam rose from inside the tarp, and once his footsteps were far enough away, there was no sound to be heard.