Page 22 (2/2)

My father staggered around in a confused circle, looking at the men in astonishment

“What the fuck are you doing here? Who the fuck are you?”

The

“Save it, you worthless piece of shit,” the one with the knife said to o back to your house and have one last drink on us We’ll be with you soon enough First, we have sohter”

The second intruder, the one on the left, began to undo his belt

I was paralyzed, for one terrible instant, by the purest fear I had ever known I glanced around at the broken glass, and decided it was now or never If I was killed trying to get a weapon, at least it would be quick I took a deep breath, and was about to lunge for the nearest long shard, but rab the intruder’s dagger—blade first

“Fuck!” He screa froers “Now just look what you’ve done! Get out of here! Get off rabbed a spade from a nearby shelf and tried to use it as a weapon, nearly falling over in the process, which got hihter

The third , picked up a pitchfork fro by the wall The other two nodded their approval and stepped aside And then in one astonishing, horrible ht intointo an apple, the four prongs ran hi with blood, from his back

I scraotten as I stared in horror at my father He lay face-up on the floor, his eyes red and bloodshot, looking confused and far-away He placed his hand to his bloody stomach and stared at his red palm in amazement “What? What happened?” he murmured, like the sequence of events didn’t make sense

“Father, just…” Despite the words we’d just flung at each other, I didn’t want to see him die Not here, anyway, not like this He wasn’t much of a father, or much of a man, but he didn’t deserve that “How could you?” I said, looking up at the four men “How could you do this?”

The one that seerinned at ot soht at ain