One long hot summer Samantha went to visit her grandmother’s farm. The farm was manned by Grandma and Uncle Toby. A month after Samantha arrived, Grandma knew Mother would not return. They called her day after day, then the police, then child services; no word. The men said that grandmother was the next available kin so Samantha had to live on the farm now.
The mornings were what got to Samantha the most, 4 a.m. each day and 9 p.m. each night. That was her life, get up, feed the cows, move the hay, feed the cows, move the hay… over and over. Samantha first heard it when Bessy gave birth. One night, Uncle Tony knelt over a stinking mass of flesh from the lying cow. Samantha couldn’t get a good look at it from behind the barn door, but the cow's screams and moos could be heard all night.
The cow was mourning its premature calf, and Samantha tried to drown out the sounds by imagining static. But every time she imagined the sound a great big horsefly would land on her face and each time she would swat at it. After a while, she shot up from her bed to confront the fly, and she saw it resting on her windowsill. Getting up from the bed she walked up to the fly and looked in shock as it had a tiny human face, it rubbed its hands together as it spoke to Samantha. It said “Hello dear Samantha, I am a messenger. The king says he wants you to follow those kids down there into the forest”, Samantha looked down to see three little figures slinking through the darkness into the barn.
Samantha believed she was in a dream, so followed the human fly outside towards the barn. The sounds of wailing stopped from the cow and Samantha only heard shuffling in the darkness of the barn, “hello?” called out Samantha. “Huh!?” said a young boy’s voice in the darkness. “Who’s there!” said a different voice in the darkness ahead. Samantha leaned forward and said quieter “It’s Samantha, what are you doing in my barn?”.
A third voice scratchier than the others spoke up, “It’s alright boys, she’s hip” said the voice, and then a flash. The bulb to the barn lit up revealing Uncle Tony plastered with a long toothy smile and 3 boys around the age of Samantha, “Come hear Samantha we don’t bite”. Samantha slowly walked towards them and the group stood around the premature calf. Its skin was thin and red, and Samantha could see its organs gray and blue. Its eyes were closed and Samantha imagined it was just sleeping but knew it was dead.
Uncle Tony introduced the gang, Tibby, Tommy, and Terence. The three boys stood behind Uncle Tony and said in unison“We heard the word, you gotta carry the calf”. Samantha couldn't shake the feeling this wasn’t a dream but why did everyone act so strangely, and what was wrong with Uncle Tony’s voice? So she walked towards the calf and picked it up like a baby. Two boys held a hamster and parakeet in their hands, the third boy held a group of flies. The 4 kids walked into the dark woods past the maple tree and the thorny bramble, there they saw a white lawn chair sitting and whispering to them all
The voice soft but loud, distant yet near said: “Place us just on the chair, our adornments are underneath the chair, give them to the calf”. So Samantha and the boys did as they were told and placed the corpses on the chair. The flies were first to awake and moved back and forth above the chair in an arch. Samantha placed a grass crown on the calf, gave him the rotting apple staff and sat backward looking at the shrine securely. It hit her like a truck when the first morning light came through a hole in the bramble bush, she wasn’t dreaming, the cold morning air, the thorns poking her side…it was real.
She looked to the boys next to her, they all were transfixed on the shrine speaking without words some silent prayer. She felt hot air on her neck and slowly turned around to see Uncle Tony, his left eye wriggling around independently as he joined the boys in wordless mass. Samantha crawled out of the bramble bush and back towards the house to go back to sleep.
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