Published in TriQuarterly Winter/Spring 2016
“Caro swung the muzzle of the shotgun up and trained the barrel on a dove. From the doorway of the sagging porch, she could see several pairs in trees on both sides of the bayou, but she kept her focus tight. She didn’t pull the trigger. She just sighted down the barrel, leading her target as it lifted into the air. After a while, she lowered the gun, a Remington 870 her father had given her nearly two years ago for her eighteenth birthday. She picked out another dove, swung the shotgun up again, and keeping her back, neck, and head straight, she leveled the gun to her eye, not her eye to the gun. She watched the birds this way until her anxiety eased.”
