Chapter 2

About 25 years ago, I read The Man Who Killed the Deer by Frank Waters. This is nothing like that. Well, I suppose the big guy with the gun could have been a Pueblo Indian. I suppose he could have had great reverence for the life of the animal. It didn't appear so to me. And obviously he did not need the meat for his family. He left the animal lying dead in my neighbor's yard.

Whatever. This chapter is not about that anyway. It's about what happened next.

After an hour or so, I looked out front to see if the deer was still in my neighbor's front yard. My neighbor, Terry, and some man I had never seen were walking toward the deer. The man began dragging the deer across the yard, followed by Terry. He dragged it through the front yard to the back yard, across the back yard out into the pasture, and across the pasture to the small barn/shed. All the while, Dash, my neighbor's dog, was following with great interest.

What was this guy going to do with the dead deer? Skin it? Eat it? Eating it seemed a remote possibility, although I don't know why. That's what hunters do. They shoot the deer, then prepare it so they can eat the meat.

Well, it was out of sight. I could try to think of something else. I did hear noises from out there, like a chain saw. You didn't want to know that part. But I thought the deer story was over.

Wrong.

After another half hour or so, I looked out my kitchen window and saw Dash running across the back yard carrying the deer's head in his mouth. Terry saw it, too, and came out. He spoke to Dash and the dog dropped the head. Terry picked it up and headed toward the pasture with Dash chasing after him and jumping up to capture the deer's head again. Once he grabbed it with his teeth, but Terry got it back and held it up higher.

Terry took the head out to the shed, and just then the guy I had never seen before yesterday walked across the pasture with two black trash bags full of what I can only think were deer parts and innards.

 That is all I know. Probably more than you wanted to know. But I just wanted to finish the thing.