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of laughter commenced behind me, a sound so close to insanity that it made gooseflesh prickle all the way from the crack of my backside to the nape of my neck. Henry had come to and gained his feet. No, much more than that. He was capering behind the cow barn, waving his arms at the star-shot sky, and laughing.
    Mama down the well and I dont care! he sing-songed. Mama down the well and I dont care, for my masters gone aw-aaay!
    I reached him in three strides and slapped him as hard as I could, leaving bloody finger-marks on a downy cheek that hadnt yet felt the stroke of a razor. Shut up! Your voice will carry! Your-. There, fool boy, youve raised that god damned dog again.
    Rex barked once, twice, three times. Then silence. We stood, me grasping Henrys shoulders, listening with my head cocked. Sweat ran down the back of my neck. Rex barked once more, then quit. If any of the Cotteries roused, theyd think it was a raccoon hed been barking at. Or so I hoped.
    Go in the house, I said. The worst is over.
    Is it, Poppa? He looked at me solemnly. Is it?
    Yes. Are you all right? Are you going to faint again?
    Did I?
    Yes.
    Im all right. I just I dont know why I laughed like that. I was confused. Because Im relieved, I guess. Its over! A chuckle escaped him, and he clapped his hands over his mouth like a little boy who has inadvertently said a bad word in front of his grandma.
    Yes, I said. Its over. Well stay here. Your mother ran away to St. Louis or perhaps it was Chicago but well stay here.
    She? His eyes strayed to the well, and the cap leaning against three of those stakes that were somehow so grim in the starlight.
    Yes, Hank, she did. His mother hated to hear me call him Hank, she said it was common, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Up and left us cold. And of course were sorry, but in the meantime, chores wont wait. Nor schooling.
    And I can still be friends with Shannon.
    Of course, I said, and in my minds eye I saw Arlettes middle finger tapping its lascivious circle around her crotch. Of course you can. But if you should ever feel the urge to confess to Shannon-
    An expression of horror dawned on his face. Not ever!
    Thats what you think now, and Im glad. But if the urge should come on you someday, remember this: shed run from you.
    Acourse she would, he muttered.
    Now go in the house and get both wash-buckets out of the pantry. Better get a couple of milk-buckets from the barn, as well. Fill them from the kitchen pump and suds em up with that stuff she keeps under the sink.
    Should I heat the water?
    I heard my mother say, Cold water for blood, Wilf. Remember that.
    No need, I said. Ill be in as soon as Ive put the cap back on the well.
    He started to turn away, then seized my arm. His hands were dreadfully cold. No one can ever know! He whispered this hoarsely into my face. No one can ever know what we did!
    No one ever will, I said, sounding far bolder than I felt. Things had already gone wrong, and I was starting to realize that a deed is never like the dream of a deed.
    She wont come back, will she?
    What?
    She wont haunt us, will she? Only he said haint, the kind of country talk that had always made Arlette shake her head and roll her eyes. It is only now, eight years later, that I had come to realize how much haint sounds like hate.
    No, I said.
    But I was wrong.
    I looked down the well, and although it was only 20 feet deep, there was no moon and all I could see was the pale blur of the quilt. Or perhaps it was the pillow-case. I lowered the cover into place, straightened it a little, then walked back to the house. I tried to follow the path wed taken with our terrible bundle, purposely scuffing my feet, trying to obliterate any traces of blood. Id do a better job in the morning.
    I discovered something that night that most people never have to learn: murder is sin, murder is damnation (surely of ones own mind and spirit, even if the atheists are right and there is no afterlife), but murder is also