Let's No One Get Hurt by Jon Pineda

Author:Jon Pineda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

THIS TIME IT’S REESE THAT grabs the assault rifle and steps up to the line marked in the field. He says it would be cool if his father used this at the next reenactment. “Can you even imagine?” Reese starts whistling “Dixie.”

Fifty or so paces from us, the flies had put random stools and small tables in a row. If I squint, it looks like someone made a living room in the middle of nowhere.

Mason hands me a wooden crate filled with old vases and empty soda-pop bottles. “Do me a favor and go set these up out there.”

Reese promises he won’t hit me.

I expect Wythe to laugh the loudest, but he just eyes my legs, like he’s trying to draw a bead on them.

* * *

I place the crate on the ground and reach for the vases first. Some of them are already chipped, but most are whole. I line them up. There are buttercups next to the crate. I pull some and drop a few in each vase. I do the same with the bottles.

When I turn around to head back, the flies are standing shoulder to shoulder, their arms crossed in front of their chests. The only one that isn’t is Reese, and that’s because he’s aiming the rifle right at me.

* * *

I stand next to Mason.

“Took you long enough,” Wythe says. “Playing house?”

“Leave her alone,” Mason says, and I can’t believe it.

But the moment doesn’t last. Reese lets loose and sprays my good work. I watch how something is clearly there one minute and isn’t the next. The wood shatters with the glass. Never mind the flowers.

“That was fucked,” Wythe yells.

The flies find their voices and chortle.

* * *

When they’ve had enough, Everett talks about taking out his father’s boat again. They’ll get some beers and sandwiches. They’ll find an area that shallows and have some others meet them out there, where they’ll tie the boats together and make a big floating mess of a party.

“Does that sound like fun?” Wythe says to me.

“I guess so.”

He laughs. I already know I’m not invited.

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