My son said softly, "I don't think it's much of a joke, Dad. I had to
listen to that one crying after I hit him."
There were big black trail ants moving in the grass. It seemed to me
there was a ringing sound in the sky. I raised my head and looked at
him. "Son, let's go back to the jeep and we can talk about it on the
way home."
"I'd rather walk." He sort of waved to the volpla he had been talking
to and then to the chief. He jumped the creek and walked away into the
oak woods.
The volpla holding the baby stared at me. From somewhere far up the
valley, a crow was cawing. I didn't look at the chief. I turned and
brushed past him and walked back to the jeep alone.
At home, I opened a bottle of beer and sat out on the terrace to wait
for my son. My wife came toward the house with some cut flowers from
the garden, but she didn't speak to me. She snapped the blades of the
scissors as she walked.
A volpla soared across the terrace and landed at my daughter's bedroom
window. He was there only briefly and relaunched himself. He was
followed from the window in moments by the two volplas I had left with
my daughter earlier in the afternoon. I watched them with a vague
unease as the three veered off to the east, climbing effortlessly.
When I finally took a sip of my beer, it was already warm. I set it
aside. Presently my daughter ran out onto the terrace.
"Daddy, my volplas left. They said good-by and we hadn't even finished
the TV show. They said they won't see me again. Did you make them
leave?"
"No. I didn't."
She was staring at me with hot eyes. Her lower lip protruded and
trembled like a pink tear drop.
"Daddy, you did so." She stomped into the house, sobbing.
My God! In one afternoon, I had managed to become a palace eunuch, a
murderer and a liar!
* * * * *
Most of the afternoon went by before I heard my son enter the house. I
called to him and he came out and stood before me. I got up.
"Son, I can't tell you how sorry I am for what happened to you. It
was my fault, not yours at all. I only hope you can forget the shock
of finding out what sort of creature you had hit. I don't know why I
didn't anticipate that such things would happen. It was just that I was
so intent on mystifying the whole world that I...."