the parable of the bastard
I awoke with a start, the courtyard was alive with rats. The dog was barking franticly and yet my wife and daughter slept. The rats were fearless, chewing at the bungs of water barrels, pissing at the end of the dog’s tether. Clamouring up the sides of spindly trees, against the chewed moon to make off with the speckled eggs they find there. One unfortunate rat had fallen in the fountain, his companions amused themselves, nipping at him as he neared the edge, until he thrashing, drowned. I went to fetch my shotgun, hearing as I did, the rasp of the rat’s speach. ” I was carrying a cuckoos egg in my mouth, down the side of an oaktree, when I slipped and hit the ground so hard…I swallowed it Whole.”“ I was round as a melon and swollen with pain, for a week or more I couldn’t eat. Then suddenly I had to shit. ” “ The pain of a moments swallowing was nothing to the pain of passing, I groaned and writhed and groaned some more, till finally out it popped and a second later cracked and a fine plump cuckoo chick blinked at me. “ “Momma, it said, and I said Oh, my darling, dear. I fed it morsels of sweet meats stolen from your table, growing thin in the meantime I don’t mind saying, till finally she was too big to fit in my burrough. It said But Momma, I scarce can move. I said be still then, and ate it’s eyes.” They laughed and laughed and one rat jumped up. ”A fine cuckoo story, but a better one I’ve seen within these walls.” and fixed his antique eye upon me for a long moment. I scattered them with birdshot but in the morning found just the drowned rat in the fountain. I took him with my own hands to the gatepost and nailed him there with the crows. At breakfast both my wife and my daughter were indisposed, the servant smirked, laughter dancing behind her eyes. I had them bring my hat and cane as I intended my usual walk though the village, to inspect my holdings on the docks. In the streets, blacks and maids looked me in the eye quite insolently, while none of the other folk would meet them. I walked angrily, clutching my cane. As I crossed the bridge I happened to glance down at the creek bed, and there on the green stones stood a rat. I carefuly climbed the stone railing and slid down the embankment, making no sound. I crept up close, raising my cane above my head. The rat then turned his shining eyes to me, suddenly ridiculous. I told him I was glad to see him, that I had been waiting. His white nose twitched. I knew everything we said would be closing up around us and we would take it home.
