Fon
By
HENRY DUMAS
A short story, from Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction
of Henry Dumas
From the sky. A fragment of black rock about the
size of a fist, sailing, sailing….craack! The rear
windshield breaks.
Nilmon snaps his head to the rearview
mirror, wheeling the car off the road.
“Goddammit!” He leaps from the car,
leaving the door open. He examines
the break, whirls around and scans the
evening countryside with squinting eyes.
The distant mooing of cattle blends
with the sharp yap of a dog.
And then he catches a movement.
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Through the trees behind him — past
a large billboard with the picture of
Uncle Sam saying I Want You, over and
down a rocky incline, toward a final
rise at the top of the levee — Nillmon
thinks he sees several pairs of legs
scurrying away.
“Niggers!” He steps back to the car,
leans across the seat, jerks open the
glove compartment, snatches up a
pistol lying between a half-bottle of
whiskey and a stick of dynamite,
and crosses the torn asphalt in four
quick strides. Pieces of pavement
scatter beneath his feet. The road is
in disuse except for an occasional
car and a few cattle crossings.
He runs toward a path by the billboard.
As he loses sight of the point in the
distance where he thinks the figures
disappeared, he runs faster. He reaches
the beams supporting the billboard.
The area behind the sign is a large
network of angled shafts and platforms.
He follows the path, stooping his
shoulders and grunting. He lurches
through an opening, twisting his way
from the entanglement of wooden
beams. He curses. Then he slows his
pace, realizing that he’s chasing children.
EDITED BY EUGENE B. REDMOND,
PUBLISHED BY COFFEE HOUSE PRESS
IN 2003.
He slips the pistol in his belt. He clears
his throat and spits at the long edge of
the billboard’s fading shadow. Then he
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