The soft ambient hum of the old wood cabinet television set went out, killing the preacher’s sermon mid-sentence. Herman sat up in his chair and peered through his thick lenses. In the stillness of the dark, he could see Jimmy-Sue eating the sandwich he’d prepared for her and slowly taking her pills. She did not seem worried. What’s wrong, she said because of his looking. Herman shook his head — exasperated, and set to looking for candles or matches, shuffling as he went.
Out from the dark, of the too big house, Jameson began barking. There was a sudden and sharp knock at the home’s side door – out to the mudroom and cars. Herman jumped. He cursed the dog. Then the door’s knob was turning and creaking in the old wood. Now Jimmy-Sue was concerned, looking from the door to Herman who went to the junk drawer in the big smokey wood armoire and pulled out an old pistol that wasn’t loaded. “I got a gun in here. It is loaded and everything else. I’ll shootcha. Clear through.” he called.
The door knob’s turning stopped dead in its frame. There was nothing else that night except for the television that lit up again a few moments later. And also the hair on his arms that stood on end. Herman let out the air from his puffed up chest, his shoulders slumped. Jimmy-Sue seemed to be watching the television without any sign of panic or discontent. He was getting tired of caring for her and was not sure if she even remembered him on some mornings.
On another night, Jameson was barking and crying in a horrible panic and scratching at the door in the far back of the house that had been the front door when he and Jimmy-Sue were children but not since the interstate had been put in. When Herman swung the door open, he felt a cold panic size him. In the place where she had planted her flowers, a strange beast shrieked, its wings were invisible brown against the purple dark. It shuddered violently, taking shambling and deliberate steps. But a breeze lifted up between them and Herman saw its wings fill up with air like two hideous paper kites. And it was gone. The news reporters were discussing the sighting of a humanoid moth-man. But Herman was at the nursing home, sitting with Jimmy-Sue, asking her if she remembered the swing-set she fell out of, gently giving her pills with water and a sandwich. -FM
El Golpe Avisa 