Red Earth Review #1

The pickup drove slowly through the people who lined the street. Dory sat on a stack of tires in the bed of the beat up brown truck proudly waving her two fingers at the crowd as she passed.

Dory’s Uncle sat on the wheel-well playing his guitar and singing. Everywhere along the road the people were holding signs. Dory couldn’t read yet but thankfully most of the people were yelling and chanting. Over and over Dory heard the words “baby killers.” Dory was glad all the people had shown up to tell the Baby Killers to stop. All of a sudden the air grew thick and smoky; people began screaming. Dory’s eyes burned. Tears rolled down her face and she felt like an elephant had sat on her chest. She felt the truck suddenly stop and her head slammed against the rear window before she slid the length of the truck bed and banged into the tailgate.

Two arms reached from the haze and grabbed her around the waist. She heard her Uncle’s voice coming from the person carrying her, “Pigs!” Dory tried looking through the haze to see the wild pigs, but the smoke burned her eyes. She was jostled in his arms as he coughed, gasping for air and ran blindly the opposite direction that the parade had been going. Every now and then he would turn his head back and yell, “Baby killer!”

Dancing with Grandpa Dory’s grandfather picked her up from her aunt’s house. On their way back to her grandma’s, her grandfather pulled over by a bridge. He got out and Dory followed. When they reached the center, her grandfather said, “Life flows like this river. It cannot be stopped or fettered because the current is too strong. Even this mighty bridge knows not to fight the river, but to ride above it.”

Dory had no clue what he was saying but she smiled when he motioned her to come closer.

“Here, come stand on my feet,” he said. Dory took her Grandfathers hands and climbed up on his shiny patent black leather shoes. Her Grandfather started dancing across the bridge and she giggled as his feet clomped on the wooden planks.

As her Grandfather spun around, Dory threw back her head feeling the cool breeze roll across her face and she looked up at the stars which sat like tiny gems on a black velvet background.

Something caught Dory’s eye as she lifted her head back up.

There was a movement on the slope leading down under the bridge. Dory strained to see what it was. “Stop, Grandpa. What’s that?” She stepped off his feet and ran to look over the bridge 28