BEHREND BEACON
September 24, 2010
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
The Last Installment
Chris didn't make breakfast in the morning. He was still surrounded by covers on the couch,
snoring, drooling. Laura got up with me though, made over-easy eggs and toast. My eyes
were glued to a sketch I was making for a hotel plan. Laura sipped at a cup of tea. There
wasn't a word spoken until I reached my last bite of toast. Chris had walked into the kitchen
and back out toward us with a cup of coffee in his hand.
"This coffee's shit, Jack," he said.
"I didn't make it; Laura did."
Chris stalled, "Did I say shit? Excuse me, I must've meant delicious."
"Mhm," Laura nodded, another sip of tea. "I've better get going to class."
r -- -""1 1 2 q I added to the sketch. "Have a good day, babe."
tebook paper from the potheitif flannel pajama
_r and I didn't know what to think, but we changed into old clothe4,,l remember cry
. 'p • , • i • dad , but my brother was stoic, helped lower mom in and everything. None of
• ~, . . each other. Hughie howled as we shoveled dirt on her. Dad stopped occa
tog
)nal y , i ayed Adisedeilis forehead. When I stopped shoveling, my father never told
to keep' . %
416%4,001a '' a•Nuldn't afford
thing else.
The soil of her grave hadn't even drinking a
more. We got jobs to get out of tl . at the end
the day. I always put flowers on fiL _ in. I tried to
slant them but they wouldn't catch. My brother had some money saved up by his thir
nth birthday. When we said we wanted to take a bus to Aunt Haley's place, he gave us
Jther ten dollars. .
' Mahe bus ride, my brother snuck shots from my father's flask and I thought of Met*
we buried my maw. We couldn't drag my father away from her side.
He slept there. in i* red,,bt the dirt. Under your boot 501e5..."
CREEK TRAIL
NATHAN CARTER
Sho ward(' Editor
e` 7
There's a palace on the wall, and
Spin the bottle to heartbreak and watc h ; :-
That time you drove all night, to the first; n
, You got some chocolate, a lighter, and;,
We walked back to the car, you said ttookecdefeated,
Said"three days without youv,' or a battle.
You smirked,'"where do you wanna go?
Said "the overtook", didn't need much throttle.
M odof them were surprised we quit each other,
were blushing red the time before last.
41.ftp,0 for the bus, asked someone for a cig,
' , = - o,ltUthsisted a goodbye kiss. It was too fast.
Under Your Boot Soles
The better buffaict
(or an exercise in bad poetic tlide)
A sticker from your old purse
Left on my cd case, you always'played DJ,
You looked through my bedroom window,
My truck, three trees and a blqejay.
And a bluejay.
NATHAN CARTER
Showcase Editor
He fell back
in, "Where's
'e plot. We'd
cheapest cas
he could do a
ton just paid
;e few weeks
digging a hole
at the worms
in my hand,
falling sand.
In of lights,
;prites.
t,
X ►
~
Behrend? SHOW -
The Last Installment
The sweat in his palms was building up, and he tightened the grip of the nine mil
limeter in his right hand, pressing it harder to the temple of his head. The breeze he
had felt on the back of his neck seconds earlier was gone. He knew the hair was still
standing and his left eye twitched twice. He didn't like this and so he closed both eyes.
Liquid traced a path along his cheeks and this time he knew, they were tears. He felt
them move from eyes to cheeks' to nose, and along the curvature of his lips. He felt as
they hung off his lower lip, ferever waiting to drip to the floor below him. He felt the
sweat from his left .n his right arm as he used it to steady the gun. The sweat
dropped from hit lip x • the face of his watch less than a second after leaving his eyes.
Now, for the e, he heard nothing. His eyes were closed and he saw nothing.
All but his , d gone numb and he held his breath. He couldn't taste his wife's
strawberry his neighbor's burnt steaks. He couldn't visualize what his wife
looked like let another man enter her. He certainly did not hear her when she
let out a ecstasy, brought upon by his best friend. He no longer smelled the
metal chlorine and grass that permeated the rest of the roof Thr ilex
had been broken, and it was the only time he heard the simultaneous ti
with the click of the gun.
The bullet plowed its way through the man's cranium. The watch hal
the time it took the bullet to leave the barrel, enter his temple, exit throe
of a few
coffee.
be stopped by the floor. The body hit the floor like a sack of tomatoes.
between the vegetable and the human contents on the floor visually irnd ,
actually uncanny. Bits and pieces of brain splashed the ground below. Skull fragments
impaled all nearby objects and blood had begun to stain the almost 60-year-old attic
floor.
Downstairs, a woman screamed as she clambered up the stairs. Across the yard, a
lawnmower stopped mowing and a neighbor's jaw dropped in awe. Down the block,
children stopped playing and bent their ears toward the house whereupon they imut
two clamorous bangs. In the attic, two men lay dead. One lay face first—appendages
still bound— in the sins of his two day old condom wrappers. The other back onto a
trunk of old trinkets, a seven-year time capsule left for the awaiting widow. For a brief
second, the watch was the only thing to move.
THE NEW WORLD
A cool br
stared at the pond's
the tiny pebble into
the bottom. The rip,
existence. He reachi
swept through Dal
fortable presence,
A smi
A few fist
water s!
numb,
It was
as the water that
her was. The fact ,
matters. It will not
David watches thr
to take in the MT
kmg •
water
ginning t(
that set hi
7weiz . ve„
EVAN KOSER
Sivilit• Layout Editor
, , t 4 1 4.,,, • i ~, ,_
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It Iteitatscnitrite. ,Pf 4
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MCI
CASSIDY BOWERS - Senior Communications Major
114iitor--Chief
old
iv,. Creative Iriting la.jot
stared deep into the water. He picked up a tiny
let the small rock rest within his hand. As David
his thoughts drifted elsewhere. He then threw
t crashed through his reflection and descended to
slowly pushing forward until finally fading from
)ached his fingers to the water. A cool sensation
e had felt in days. It felt familiar to him, a corn
surrounding park, though it was devoid of life,
cold, shallow pond.
the other foot at the bottom as well.
Llk toward the center of the pond. The
:ame damp and his hands were nearly
is where he would find his salvation.
lerged. The bitter cold of the water
, wool blanket. David felt safe, as the
~ David's mind soon became clear, clear
(d not matter what the last thing he said to
lifeless face still haunts his mind no longer
her again. Air bubbles escape from his mouth,
disappear. He opened his mouth and began
him. It filled his lungs. It had been far too
:el this. David's breaths grew shallow and the
I began to erupt with pain; his vision was be
full of pain, but now full of the cool fluid
' WAter# CoMforted, col 4
"Show Yourself"