Scratch by Steve Himmer

Author:Steve Himmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940430904
Publisher: Curbside Splendor Publishing
Published: 2016-07-19T04:00:00+00:00

13

AT THE END OF THE DAY’S WORK, WHILE THE CREW FINISH their cigarettes and make plans to meet at one bar or another, Martin walks away up the slope of the site to inspect the empty spaces that will be his houses in time. The walls of each rectangular hole are laced with the same thin, gray roots he saw tangled with bones yesterday, and he thinks of blood vessels, of bodies, and the pink striations of muscle he saw beneath the mountain lion’s skin as Gil peeled it away. Martin didn’t watch much of the process, but it was enough to stick in his head.

From atop of the hill that crowns the clearing he looks back toward his trailer and the crew preparing to leave. He sees Alison in conversation with the dump truck driver; her tall, lanky body beside his squat, rounded one resembles a large number ten. She waves her hand through the air, fingers pointed toward Martin or maybe the hole he’s standing beside, and the driver nods his head at whatever she’s saying. Those gestures, those flicks of her fingers, are a language he can’t enter into, not from this distance, any more than he’s been able over the years to translate the subtle gestures a crane operator is directed with from the ground. He runs these sites and these projects, on paper, but on the ground—in the hands of his crews—he doesn’t speak the language of work. As the first few engines rattle to life and cars and trucks begin moving away, Martin walks down the slope toward the road.

“Alison,” he calls while approaching her truck, though she doesn’t seem in a hurry to leave. She smiles, and Martin waits until he’s closer before saying anything else. “Things are coming along, then. Digging’s going well. How’s the crew working out?”

“They’re fine. No problems.”

He nods, frustrated with small talk when he really wants to tell Alison so much more, about his plans for making a home and about the dreams he’s been having. He’d like someone else to know of these things, to make them more real, and hers is the most sympathetic ear he’s found here. The one he most wants to listen.

“Should be done digging this week,” she tells him.

With the workers departed, with the ground cleared, starlings descend onto the building site. Their speckled black bodies, dozens of them, crowd the churned ground in a battle for whatever seeds and scraps have been overturned and whatever crumbs may have been dropped by the crew.

“Martin,” she says, “listen. This morning, when we were talking. You asked about the stories, about . . . you know, Scratch, and all that. Look. I don’t know if I believe them or not. Maybe I do. Most people do. Or . . . well, people say they do and I guess the difference between believing something and saying you believe it isn’t so much. Say it enough times and you’ll believe whether you mean to or not, right? If you say you believe something long enough you’re bound to act on it sooner or later.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.