Businessman v. Cabinet Maker

Throughout the night the Businessman watches across the grounds, past the fence, across the field, where light seeps from cracks in the hideous shack, and singing or chanting can be heard at times, then silence, with occasional shouting, and - near midnight - laughter.

That morning he wakes, surveys the pillaged pile of dead by the old pyre, and waits, frustrated. He waits by the north fence until mid-morning.

No one comes. Another hour. No one comes.

In anger - anger compounded by the shame of yesterday's profane indecency, more anger at waiting - he steps over the fence and marches across the weedy earth to the shack, the shack next to the motor, connected to the well.

He strikes his fist against the door. Again, and again. From inside the shuffling of feet. Then an reddened eye peeking from a slat. The lifting of a bolt. And the fat man stands before, unshaved and shirtless, the Bishop's blood- and mud-stained cassock draped carelessly over his meaty left shoulder.

The fat man grunts. The Businessman begins shouting. The fat man slams the door. The Businessman hits his hand against the door, shaking the shack. The fat man opens the door. Now dressed in the Bookseller's plaid jacket (several sizes too small), holding a rusted shovel. He pushes his way past the Businessman, slams the door behind him.

The Businessman yells as he walks beside the fat man. The fat man sidles the fence, walks a few paces - now just feet from the twisted, decomposing, maggot-infested bodies - and begins digging.

Do it out of plain sight, you understand me? shouts the Businessman. Or the contract's off!

The fat man continues digging.

When the Cabinet Maker arrives the Businessman stands dour, back to the oak, re-reading the contract.

The two men talk. The Businessman explains. The Cabinet Maker - a lanky, honest looking tradesman - is skeptical, but says nothing.

As they speak, the thin man steps from the shack and staggers still drunk over the field, over the fence to join the fat man. The fat man stops his work and talks. And the thin man talks. This at the time when the Businessman and Cabinet Maker talk. And in this way the two groups of two men mirror each other exactly - one thin, the other fat; one certain, the other skeptical - save for cleanliness and conversation.

They raise their guns. Their guns go off.