rosewater

            Leah awoke in a strange bed. An indigo sky dusted with starlight peeped through the cabin window. Someone was shuffling about in the parlor. She heard a melody, folksong or canticle, sung by a man with sweet qualities.            
            In the parlor he had arranged a "cooling board" and was now washing Cherry Blossom.
            "Excuse me?"
            "Howdy, ma'am. How're you feeling?"
            "Who are you?"
            "Ernst Mueller from Comfort, Texas."
            "What are you doing?"
            "I am washing this poor woman's body."
            "Are you crazy?"
            "Yes, ma'am."
            He had found rosewater and some salts. Lovingly he was giving Cherry Blossom her final bath. All the blood was gone. The wound next to her brown aureole had been cleansed with peroxide solution. All urine and feces wiped away.
            "Where did you learn such things?" Leah asked, beginning to appreciate Ernie the Lurp's beautiful skills.
            "On the farm back home. In Nam."
            "I must tell you, her man will be returning any moment."
            "I know that."
            "That monster you killed, what of him?"
            "Already gone. Took care of him like I took care of Charly."
            He stroked Cherry Blossom's pubic mound as a goodbye. "Done here. Advise you folks to bury her as quietly as you've lived. No law, no preacher."


                                                                            *


              Close to midnight the Skell Van returned home.