It’s Friday Fictioneers time again! And here’s Madison Woods’ latest prompt –
Vengeance
Dad never got mad at anything. Not even the crows that followed every spring pecking up corn as fast as we planted it. “Saw enough of what getting mad does for folks, boy,” he used to say.
“But they’re eating up next fall’s crop, Dad.”
“They’re just critters doing what they do.”
“Couple of stones and I’ll show ’em who’s boss.”
“Leave them be, boy. You hear?”
“Yes, Dad.”
But he couldn’t abide vultures. I was thirteen before I dared ask why he always took the shotgun to any he saw. His face went strange. “I was at Antietam, boy. Ain’t no old soldier can stand a buzzard.”
* * *
The Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862) is believed to be the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history.
A Number of Things 