No Sense in Waiting

The rain was falling like artillery

on a chilly March evening

while the four of us huddled

around a tiny wood stove

in a damp farmhouse in the forest.

We rubbed our hands together

in front of the fire,

and the flames sparked abruptly,

making popcorn sounds

as the wet wood ignited.

It was one of those nights

when no one had much to say-

words fell to the floor

like sacks of laundry

and remained there, unattended

until the entire room was filled

with the stench of dullness.

My visiting boyfriend was an attorney

who had followed me from Chicago

to a tiny island in Puget Sound

where I lived with Chris and Debbie,

two women I'd met on the highway

only a month beforehand.

Debbie owned a dog

who'd roamed the same highway

while in heat,

searching for a willing partner

to alleviate her strange discomfort.

Eventually she coupled with a canine

who had bad genes,

and then gave birth to a batch

of deformed puppies, who lay now

in a jumbled pile in the nearby barn,

attended by their anxious mother,

waiting for their fate to be decided.

We humans had known their fate for a while,

but never discussed it openly.

Debbie was a single mother

who had migrated to the Northwest

from a southerly direction,

her sullen toddler son and the dog

tossed into the back of her car

with their few possessions,

stopping only to purchase soda,

disposable diapers and cigarettes.

Now she had a squirming mess

of defective puppies

but no money for a vet bill

for their humane extermination.

Still, Debbie was nothing

if not intrepid-

she suddenly rose to her feet,

strode purposefully across the room,

and heaved herself over to the corner

where her shotgun lay.

She lifted the barrel to her shoulder

and, while everyone stared at her

with stupefied amazement,

she casually stated, “Well,

might as well do it now.

There ain't no sense in waiting”

and stormed outside into the rain.

A minute later,

the gun fired six times

and then everything was quiet-

at least until Debbie came back inside

sat down beside the wood stove,

snapped the door open,

and threw a new log on the fire.