SandScript 2022

·
·
“Let’s go” yelled Tom.
Both boys scrambled to get back in the car. Bill climbed over Dorothy to regain his middle seat between
the two girls, but Tom slid into the window seat, behind the driver and put his arm around Dorothy. Bill gave Tom
a dirty look, but Tom just grinned back at him and then winked and pulled Dorothy close. Dorothy didn’t object.
Instead, she smiled at Tom and decided to leave Bill to his date, Bea Connaughton, but Bill resolutely centered
himself in the middle of the back seat with another glare in Tom’s direction. Ruthie took off like a rocket and they
were past Timmerman’s gate in no time. The girls were cheering and the boys were laughing when the shotgun blast
exploded through the back window of the car.
The crack and shatter of the shotgun felt, to Tom, like it took forever, and the flying shards of glass and
shotgun pellets seemed to move in slow motion. The air was full of flying rainbow glass and grey pellets, and then
there was the smell of blood and then there was blood – all over the front window and the back of the front seat as
well. Tom saw Bill slump forward and thought that maybe he was trying to hide on the floor, but that wasn’t it at all.
†
Paul Timmerman told the sheriff that he only wanted to scare the kids. He meant to spray a load of
buckshot over the top of their car. Unfortunately, as Timmerman stepped into the rutted dirt road his foot hit a hole
and he stumbled. While Timmerman tried to regain his footing, the shotgun, now pointed directly at the car’s back
window, went off. Timmerman was only a couple yards behind the car when the gun discharged. The shotgun pellets
went straight through the back window catching Bill in the back, severing and pulverizing a good-sized section of
his spinal cord and killing him instantly. The other kids escaped with minor scratches.
†
Maryann Moore was pouring punch, standing behind the refreshment table at Feeny’s Mortuary and
Funeral Home. The whole town seemed to have come for the viewing tonight. Tom was sitting with his parents and
Father Donnelly. Dorothy had spoken to Tom when he first came in, but he didn’t answer or even acknowledge her.
He seemed to look right through her. Now Dorothy was staying close to her mother. Maryann knew she would have
to perform the hostess duties tonight because Jeanette Feeney had her hands full with Dorothy.
Maryann was handing cups of punch to the Sheriff, Gene March, and his wife when she caught sight of
Tom walking to the front of the room. He walked to the casket and touched Bill’s hand. Tom stood very still for a
moment and then his head bowed and his shoulders began to shake. Maryann almost dropped her ladle and went to
him, but Father Donnelly beat her to it. He ushered the boy outside, not back to his parents. Will Feeney came out
with two large pitchers of punch to refill the bowl. Then Will turned to the sheriff.
“I know you’re blaming yourself for this Gene, but you couldn’t have known.”
“I know I couldn’t stop him Will,” said the sheriff, “but that doesn’t keep me from thinking I should have
found some way to do just that.”
Will Feeney pulled a flask out of his pocket and topped off Sheriff Gene’s punch.
“There was nothing you could do Gene, nothing anyone could do.”
50
51
V
A
I
W
S
U
A
R
A
L
D
Neen
Isaac Zierenberg
Exposure on Color Film