Creative Writing

The Gokey Family sickness epidemic from Royal Loomis' point of view

I was driving the buckboard up our drive when I noticed Mattie doing the same. However she was not alone, Tommy and Mr. Denio were with her and she seemed awfully bewildered. As I pulled near, I saw tears welling in her eyes and her cheeks were glistening and wet. "I was delivering to the Waldheim," I shouted "I saw Mrs. Hennessy on my way back. She told me what happened. Go inside. I'll see to the cows" No response. And she was out of that buckboard before it had began to stop. Over the sounds of the cows bellowing to their calves, I told Tommy to stop standing around and tie the horses. I half ran to the stalls but I heard the sickness before I saw it. The noises they were making were awful and the calves were replying in screechy response. The milk had quickly collected and began to swell the udders, which were now a mass of pus and blood. Tommy was being of next to no help and I began to get flustered. As I was taking calming breaths my vision flickered from the ground to Tommy and back again before I'd realised what I'd seen. One word enveloped my mind. Imbecile. I'd heard Mattie say it and now I was to say it too. Responding to my tone Tommy ran over, leaving the poor cow he was bullying to her own devices. As my hand connected to his proportionally smaller face, he made a noise somewhat similar to the cows. After the impact and the realisation of what occurred, everything began to slow. Drawing my still closed fist back seemed to take forever. It was like the first snow of winter dropping silently from the skies. Or autumn leaves floating from a tree. And as quickly as it came, the silence left. Tommy began to moan then stopped suddenly like he'd been snapped out of it and walked back to the still difficult Baldwin. He didn't seem like he was expecting an apology so I slunked into the shed. That's when the extent of it hit me. And it hit me like a rock. My eyes flicked amongst all the cows but couldn't go past Daisy. She was in a real bad state and I didn't know if she'd even last ghe night. I had to put her out of her misery, watching her suffer isn't fair. Shooting her wouldn't get to me, but it would eat Mattie up inside. I scrambled for a gun but didn't make much progress and the noises coming from those godforsaken cows didn't help. "Jeesum!" I shouted. It barely came out as a mumble. I collected my thoughts and went to find Mattie. ... The smell in there was as bad as down here. I could still hear the girls begging Mattie to stop me. How they got so attached I'd never know. My head fluttered with thoughts as I pulled Daisy to the side. She didn't look frightened, just sad. Which is hard for a cow because all they do is make a mess. I drew the gun close to my face and spread my feet slightly. The gun popped and with that, Daisy's misery was over.