THE ACCIDENT

Gram couldn’t sleep one night. Said she never could when the moon was full or when it was new, like it was that time. So she was just lying there wakeful, and she heard the hens start to make a racket. There’d been ‘coons around, and there’s minks sometimes, so close by the river. So Gram got up and got her gun and went out the front door real quiet and sneaked around back. She saw a bear standing on his hind legs, coming up towards the house. ‘Course, like I say, Gram could see in the dark. So she took aim and shot. When we heard, my sister and me came running out in our nightdresses, and there was Gram, standing with the gun in her hand, and Daddy lying dead on the ground.