Skeleton Quarry - redux (434 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.88 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by earth collapse (View user info) at 2009-03-05 23:44:48 EST
I saw Sean last out by Skeleton Quarry, fucked up on oxy-cotton or morphine, tracing patterns in the sand with a stick.
I called his name twice before he looked up, this stupid grin on his face as if I had just missed the joke and 'too bad', he wasn't going to repeat it.
And he murmured something, maybe, 'I'm really fucked up,' or, 'how about that moon?' or 'I didn't expect to see you here,' and polishing off a case of Pabst he returned to tracing patterns in the sand, unresponsive and indifferent. And when I left, I felt strange. And that night, maybe a couple hours later, still fucked up on God-knows-what, he must have decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in the Quarry, under the half-moon, and maybe he made it half-way across the width of it, and probably too tired to swim back, then decided to stop, and then just drowned.
They found an empty beer can next to some clothes and an eighth of pot by the water's edge, and I imagined he sunk to the bottom, next to all the other skeletons, next to the rusted out Chevys and farm equipment, and it wasn't so bad and I occasionally find myself saying 'Sean didn't die out at Skeleton' because the truth was, 'Sean was already dead and he just decided to finally leave,' something he always promised he'd do, one way or another.
It didn't matter that he had drowned sometime around three or four, or that they never found his body, or that he was fucked up on his Dad's pain meds, or even that his bones would rest next to all that junk at the bottom of the Quarry that you could see on a sunny day, looking down, the water this transparent blue, clear, the closest thing to beauty any of us had ever seen, at least in East Texas, out in the boonies with a bunch of deer and armadillo and wild hogs and these fucking pine trees that hung over us like prison bars.
And his parents took it hard, spaced out at the funeral with these raw faces and wet cheeks. They hadn't seen this coming, and God's plan didn't make much sense. His death was being played out like some kind of biblical revelation yet to be discovered, sudden and unexpected, that meant something more than Sean just being dead. Something that would bring them the briefest amount of solace, something that could put this all into perspective, make the loss feel less. But nothing could, not for them, not for any of us, not really.
But it didn't mean anything, really, Sean was just fucked up and swimming in the Quarry and probably looking up at the stars and tired and weak from the downers, just dipped his head under the water and decided not to come back up. He had decided, it was his decision, it wasn't an accident, he knew he'd just sink to the bottom and maybe, he thought, on a really sunny day, maybe in august a few years from now, someone would stand on the edge of the Quarry and looking down, would see some bones at the bottom, just resting there, quiet, undisturbed, looking back at whoever it was staring down with this big grin, the grin that said, 'the joke's on you, buddy, and I ain't gonna repeat myself because it just won't be funny anymore.'
User Reviews
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2009-11-18 15:58:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2009-03-07 15:49:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2009-03-06 13:30:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2009-03-06 06:38:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The gaff in the first line put me off a bit, but the rest more than made up for that.
Pine trees like prison bars. Gold.
Submitted by AW4416 (user info) at 2009-03-06 10:38:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-03-06 10:33:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2009-03-06 09:53:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2009-03-06 06:38:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The gaff in the first line put me off a bit, but the rest more than made up for that.
Pine trees like prison bars. Gold.
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2009-03-06 05:46:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Solace is one of my favourite words.
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2009-03-06 01:57:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I really liked this. "closest thing to beauty" part might have been my favorite.