Paka' - A Novel by Jim Dunlap

THREE - KILL

The reader will be spared the rest of the gory details. A report from the funeral home says that the poor girl died of suffocation. She had a bite on her throat that crushed her windpipe. The sheriff said it could have been a catamount seeing as how one has been spotted in the woods south of Cambridge. That would explain how the body got up on that ledge. A big one could carry off a half grown heifer. The sheriff also surmised that it must have been an old cat or something had knocked out some teeth. There were no canine teeth marks but they were all flat. Little Virginia had some hair in her fist. She must have fought the animal. Sheriff Jones says he will send it to Dallas to have it analyzed.

The funeral will be at 1:00 PM in the sanctuary at First Methodist. The body will be at home and please knock loud if you visit as the parlor is at the back of the house.

     Sarah Jacobs sat in the middle of her bed. She was alone in the house because her family had gone to pay their respects to the Elerby’s. She had told her mother that she really felt bad with cramps and a headache. Sarah really felt happy. As she sat she stretched her long legs to the foot of the bed and dug her toes into the quilt. Her hands were behind her back and she moaned with pleasure and rolled to her stomach. The muscles rippled every time she shifted her position. She felt happy and relaxed. She was getting stronger by the day. Her senses were unbelievably acute. It did make her a little sad to watch Sammy as he dressed to go visiting because he had a long face. That was all right because soon he would be happy again and they would play ball in the yard and hide-and-seek in the arbor after dinner. She just knew that her big brother loved her more than anyone else. She had already shown him how much she loved him and that she just could not bear the thought of him caring more for someone else. Sarah got up and went to the window. She could see the Methodist church out this south side. Just a short playground width to the west stood the house of that she devil Virginia. Sammy was in there right now and just that thought made Sarah’s muscles twitch.
     She walked back to the corner of her bed, plopped across it crossways and put a finger into a crack in the wood floor. The loose board came up and Sarah removed a small brown notebook. It was made by folding her school paper in half, punching holes in the fold with an ice pick and tying a piece of string through the holes. She stood, took a pencil from the top of her bookcase and in one leap bounded to the top of her chest-of-drawers. She sat cross-legged, six feet of the floor, and began to write.
October 12, 1899, WD. Dear secret, I watched her in the bathroom this morning. I was in the stall and she didn’t know it. It was her and goofy Cindy. She was standing in front of the mirror with her shirt pulled up to her chin. She was rubbing one of her old big breast through her under vest and giggling about how Sammy loved to do that. Cindy was giggling too. She was talking about how Sammy was almost crying when she said he couldn’t do it any more and how he got a sad puppy look on his face when she told him about Johnny liking to do it even better. I was so mad I almost came busting out the door but I heard Mrs. Anders calling class so I just waited until they left. After dinner last night I snuck out and went to the school building and was sitting on the porch. I heard her whistling so I hid under the porch. I saw her coming down the way and I got real mad. She hurt Sammy. He has not been happy for a long time ever since she took interest in him. It seems like she hurt him all the time. She acted like it made her happy just to make him sad. She did not see me but when she got close I jumped out and grabbed her. I was so mad that I threw her on the ground. She will never hurt Johnny again and I’m glad.