The Matter Is Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

their wagon, wavin good-by to Mr. Gunioff. She spoke to them of how outdone he was by the loss of all his animals, poor fellow! He just didn’t feel up to doing anything. They nodded in understanding and continued down the bumpy dirt road, with Mrs. Conet lookin round their yard, trying to find something they had that she didn’t, so she could have something to complain to her husband about again. She thought Mr. Gunioff was a better man than her husband anyway.
    After they had gone, Mr. Gunioff got into his wagon and rode to town and got some strawberry ice cream, yes, strawberry it was, and returned to wait for his wife and friends to return.
    While he waited he fed the poison to the new sitting hen. For some reason he didn’t want to kill the little chicks, even tho he was leaving them without a mother. She just gave a twitch or two and then fell over!
    When Martha, that was his wife’s first name, returned, he met the wagon and reached up to help her down. Mrs. Conet smiled down at him. Well, there wasn’t hardly nobodyelse round this country to flirt with. Anyway, that smile made him say, “I went and got you some ice cream for a treat, Martha.”
    “Ohhhhhh,” Martha sang, “how nice! I sure would love some ice cream.”
    He smiled up at Mrs. Conet. “Strawberry. Would you like some too?”
    Mr. Conet spoke, “Mama made me and Mavis (that was his wife’s first name) a fine chocolate cake, going to save myself for that. Sure thank you tho!”
    Mavis smiled down at Mr. Gunioff. “Thank you so much.” She said softly, eyes glowin at him.
    As they drove down the drive, Mavis looked back to watch Martha and her sweet husband go into their house, arms around each other. She smiled at the thought of love, lasting love.… Then she turned to her husband and frowned.
    When Mr. Gunioff went through the front door, he said, “You just sit on the porch and rest yourself! I’ll fix it for you for a change!” Martha sat with a big smile on her face, thinking how time can bring about a change and what a good one this was. Why, she and Mr. Gunioff may have a sweet full life ahead of them yet! With a little fun in it!
    He mixed the ice cream and the poison and put it in one of her prettiest dishes she always saved for special times and took it to her. As she took the dish, she smiled and asked, “Where’s yours? Ain’t you goin to have some?”
    “Goin to get it now,” he said. And did. When he returned, he held his dish and watched her, smiling as she ate and licked her spoon.
    All of a sudden, in the middle of tellin him about her dayat church, she grabbed her stomach and stared at him. Even in her pain, thoughts flooded into her mind and she realized what he had done to the animals and to her. She was pointing at the sheep yard when her body lurched and she was thrown on the floor of the porch. Her body shuddered and lurched again, with a life, or a death, of its own, and she flew off the porch to the ground. Through her pain, she saw him moving closer to her, she looked at him, when her head wasn’t jerkin with eyes rollin up, in wonder. He had sat his bowl down. He was crying. He cried until she died, looking at her with a deep sadness. She never did scream, just struggled with the monster in her mind and in her body and in her sight. She forgot to pray, she was tryin so hard to understand this man she had lived with, loved, most all her life. Then … her heart lost the struggle … and she died.
    Mr. Gunioff went into the house and brought out a large mirror, setting it in front of him, he began to eat his ice cream. He was staring at himself as the tremors began. His arm flung the dish away involuntarily, but he had eaten enough. He looked at himself, when he could, through the pain and the contortions of his body. He did not understand how he got there in the middle of all this death.
    Just as he was closing his eyes for the last time, the little sheep that belonged to his wife came bouncing around the