"Forecast"
"He was always such a good kid, you know? Quiet and sweet. Spent so much time out in that old shed, just reading I think." Uncle Derek's words collapsed into sobs. We sat together for a few minutes beneath the blue sky, the only sound across the entire farm was the gentle echo of my uncle's sniffling.
Finally Derek was quiet again, wiping his red nose on the back of his sleeve. I put an arm around the old man's waist and we continued our march across the field. At the far corner of his land I could just make out the dilapidated form of the shed where my young cousin Ellis had died.
Our footsteps left obvious imprints across the tilled field. It had been nearly 3 weeks since the storm and Derek still hadn't gotten around to planting. He was nearly 50, strong and grizzled after a lifetime of working the fields. Six years ago he and his wife, my aunt Laura, had finally conceived. Many had said it was too late for them, that the child would likely have serious problems, but against the odds they had a healthy young boy. Ellis was quiet but already showing some smarts for his age, and he seemed to enjoy the family business. Derek would finally have someone to take over the farm.
But that hope collapsed with the shed. A storm had collapsed it with Ellis inside. Derek and Laura had braved the storm in search of the child. They pulled him from the wreckage even as the storm continued around them. But it was too late. No one was quite sure why Ellis had loved the shed so much, or why he stayed there when the storm had picked up.
Today Derek had asked me, and me alone, to help him in the clean-up. And of course I had agreed to help.
Derek sniffled as we reached the shed. "At least he died here, on the farm he loved." He said under his breath.
"He died happy, I'm sure uncle."
It took us a couple hours just to clear out the collapsed roof of the shed, which was more like a small barn. My uncle had once used it for machinery but hadn't needed much of it as he had upgraded to newer equipment over the years. When Ellis had started hanging out here my uncle gave it over to the young boy, figuring the quiet young boy needed a place to be alone.
"What do you think he was up to out here, uncle? Ellis was always so reserved, I don't even think I know what he enjoyed."
Derek stopped working for a moment and stared off into his memories. "Oh Ellis was a smart kid. He used to tinker with my tools and run off with some new project out here. People always said he was smart but they didn't know the half of it. He built a live-trap when he was only four just seeing one at the store. Caught all kinds of little critters."
"Really? Wow. What did he do with them?"
Derek blinked and glanced to me. "You know I'm not real sure. I just figured he let them go eventually. Never really saw any of them again. Think it was just the thrill of outsmarting them, you know?"
"Sure, uncle." We continued our work into the afternoon. We loaded pieces of the metal roof and walls onto a trailer. When we uncovered the old workbench we found the first of Ellis' critters. The bench had collapsed under the weight of the roof, but most of the remains of a rabbit could still be seen. Its feet were nailed to the wooden surface.
We stared at the dead creature for a couple minutes. Finally Derek spoke up. "Looks like little Ellis was trying his hand at taxidermy." I nodded solemnly but said nothing.
A few minutes later we found the decaying corpse of a squirrel. It looked like it had been dissected, its tiny form rent and mutilated. I shuddered at the gore.
"He sure was a curious little guy." Uncle Derek sniffled in remembrance.
As we neared the end of the clean-up we finally found the rest of the critters little Ellis had captured. Their tiny bodies had been decomposing for almost a month but from the bloody tools, less-than-humane traps, and liberally used hardware, it was clear many of their injuries had not been caused by the storm.
Upon discovery of the cache of corpses my stomach lurched and Aunt Laura's lunch was heaved onto the unplanted field.
"It makes me sick too. Such a promising young boy." Derek began to sob for the first time since we arrived. "So smart, so curious! He didn't deserve this! How could God do this to him?" Derek's head collapsed into wet hands.
I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and helped my distraught uncle load up the last of the rubble into the trailer. Finally we left, and as we drove away from my cousin's little shed, I wondered if the storm had been the work of the devil or an angel.
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