Mason

I slept in my car in town that night after giving my statement.

Actually, I didn't sleep.

I parked at a 24-hour gas station under the lights and sat there until sunrise.

My shoulder was bruised from the shotgun.

My ears rang for two days.

Carla paid me anyway, more than we had agreed, and she apologized over and over.

I asked her what she thought it was.

She said she didn't know.

Then she told me there are things you don't feed with attention.

That was the last time I went to that property.

A few weeks later, my mom told me Carla and Ray had given away the chickens and moved the dogs inside permanently.

Within a year, they sold the place.

Carla said it was because of her sister's health and because Ray was tired of maintaining the land, but I don't believe that.

I think they had been dealing with something around that house for a long time, and what happened to me was just the first time it crossed a line they couldn't ignore.

I've tried to explain it away.

I really have.

A rabid deer.

A prank.

A person wearing a hide.

A mental break.