Angry Buddhist (9781609458867) by Greenland Seth

Author:Greenland, Seth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2012-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Vonda Jean is out teaching a jiu-jitsu class when Hard returns from work a little after seven in the evening. He knows she won’t be home for a few more hours so he empties a can of chili into a bowl and puts it in the microwave. While it heats up he takes a bottle of beer out of the refrigerator and then he eats the chili and drinks the beer standing at the kitchen counter. It’s been a day since Vonda Jean threatened to dump Bane on the side of the road but Hard knows her patience is limited. He finishes the dinner, puts the dishes in the sink and heads to the garage where he lifts the lid of the oblong freezer and gazes upon his friend. The folds of Bane’s black muzzle are stiff and frost has formed on his eyelids. In his current condition he reminds Hard of a dog in one of the Yukon poems he loves so well. He only wishes Bane fell doing battle with a wolf pack instead of at the hands of an unhinged tanning technician.

Hard takes a red camp blanket from a shelf and spreads it on the floor of the garage. Grabs Bane by the front knees, hoists him out of the freezer and thuds him on to the blanket. The dog hits the floor with a force that makes Hard think for a second the corpse might crack in two, but Bane retains his structural integrity. Although Hard will not admit this to Vonda Jean, he is glad she insisted on not allowing Bane to be stuffed. Absent the spirit that animated him, Bane looks like nothing more than road kill. Hard upbraids himself for having been sentimental. Then he folds the blanket over his late companion and, heaving, grunting, muscles him toward the driveway and into the bed of his pickup next to a metal can that contains a gallon of gasoline.

Back in the house, he grabs an unopened pint bottle of bourbon and a Robert Service paperback. Tosses them on the front seat. Heads east from Twentynine Palms, then south on Gold Park Road and deep into the desert night. Hard turns on the radio to hear some music, but after a couple of seconds realizes music does not dovetail with the gloomy nature of his mission so he presses the off button and continues his journey in respectful silence.

Hard ruminates about funerals as the truck glides through the starry blackness. He did a little research on the Internet and now he knows a thing or two about how different cultures deal with the dead. He knows about Tibetan sky burials where the corpse is left on a rock in the Himalayas and birds dine on the remains until nothing is left but bleached bone. He read about Viking funerals where the dead warrior is placed on a boat that is then set aflame before being sent out to sea on the wind. And he

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