Death Warmed Over

    Skunks, ducks, chinchillas, reptiles--when growing up, my younger brother Johnny loved all creatures great and small.  He never asked my parents, he would just show up with something, like the time he brought home the canary.
     He gave it to our ten year old sister, Bridget, on Christmas Eve. She couldn't find it the next day to put it away before the long ride to Gramma's house. Where could it have gone? She had been playing with it a minute ago...   Bathtime, fourteen hours later, she was taking off her pants and...out rolled the very dead canary that had apparently crawled inside that morning.
     14 year old Johnny, never one to overlook a financial angle, was going to return the bird to the pet shop demanding a refund for damaged goods. He mummified it in toilet paper, stashed it in the glove box sarcophagus of the family car and promptly forgot about it.  And never told anyone.  That was January.
     About Mid April when it finally warmed up in Minnesota, a curiously awful, necrotic smell began to permeate the car...  To which Johnny exclaimed, "Oh yeah!! I still gotta get my money back!"  Which didn't happen because our mom tossed out the dead body on West 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis...
©1/2012  Jana B Patrick

Bridget and Tweety