When Daddy bludgeoned the injured possum against the asphalt with his crowbar, the boy fell on his tailbone and watched as it squirmed, mouth ajar.
Daddy caressed the boy between the shoulder blades: "It's hard for you, Berty, I know. This is hard for the both of us. Do you want it to suffer?"
"Look at it, boy. The summation of all things." Daddy scratched his chin with grimy, landscaper's nails. "We're not any different, in the end." Daddy snorted ... and coughed. Wet and bronchial. He spit something out. Something red. The boy turned away.
He didn't like seeing that.
"I promise it will be quick." Daddy held up the gored end of the jimmy for punctuation. "Finish it."
Daddy's green trucker cap concealed the eyes and the bridge of the nose. There was something there he needed to obscure. The boy saw, amidst the grizzled stubble, that Daddy's smile was shrinking.
The boy refused the crowbar. Daddy exhaled. He scowled in disappointment. "You're not ready yet. That's OK. You're just not ready." He got up -- knees popping -- and tottered to the porch, clumsily unscrewing the lid off a sterling silver flask. He sat on the northernmost step, fiddling with the chipped red paint.
Shed flakes of snakeskin fell from his dried lips and floated to the ground, spinning like sycamore seeds.
He pocketed the flask and lit a Lucky Strike, watching the boy lay back on the pavement. "Just lie there and relax, Berty. We still have time."
The boy watched the telephone lines intersect the blue sky. Beyond them, nothing but cyan brushed with cirrus clouds. An Acadian Flycatcher sat on the line closest to him. The bird flapped its wings and set flight.
The boy watched as the feather slowly descended, finally landing on his nose.