As Bill rounded the corner past his friend, the hoop snake's house, he was suddenly aware of those wicked eyes piercing blackness of the windows in the pickup truck that was toward the open manhole in the middle of the street. Those eyes, he knew, would follow him to his grave which was just the corner of the hoop snake's bird house. Bill took his last few steps with pride.

The eyes were watching as he fell into the open grave with boldness. Wickedly the eyes cried a pair of dry tears to make Bill feel better as he passed into eternity. The pickup truck suddenly veered to the left and the manhole missed swallowing the rear right tire. The eyes (because of the pair of dry tears) didn't see the senator's mistress as she stood trying to seduce the butcher with her long shapely legs and ruby lips.

The eyes didn't see the senator holding tightly to her arm as he bent over to retrieve about two dozen wooden nickels that fell out of his pocket. The pickup bounced over the curb onto the sidewalk knocking the senator through the door to the butcher shop. He landed like a piece meat falling limply on the cutting block. The truck stopped with a crash against the hoop snake's bird house. Those wicked eyes stepped quickly out of the truck and made a drug deal on the other side of Bill's grave.

With Bill gone those eyes needed another hokey to fill the void in the Hoop snake’s birdhouse. It was still early afternoon when Miss Fanton, the latest addition to Lonesome Jack's Beauty Salon, felt the eyes wickedly piercing the lobe of her ear. She now could add another ear ring to her left ear. But she was really thinking about the latest formula for making the rubber balls in her apartment defy gravity in the absence of gravity.

Lonesome Jack's mother had gone out to pasture and the only ones in the solon were customers so she asked the customers to do their own hair as she locked the door on her way out. Those wicked eyes continued to follow her as she passed her grave next to the Martian Restaurant. But she wasn't worried, she had paid her dues.

The eyes began to look around him uneasily. He saw an ice cream dipper and a man making a basket. He just had to fill the void. He still had Miss Fanton's two dollars but it was still in the dues collection box back at his office. If only he had the money now, he could get something to eat. But he received greater satisfaction out of piercing things. And he knew he was wicked. And Miss Fanton knew she had been taken, but she also knew there nothing she could do about it.

The dues were only a token of love for Lonesome Jack. She really loved him much more than. When she reached her apartment, she glanced over her shoulder and gave those wicked piercing eyes a wink. The eyes pierced her heart as she closed the door behind her and mumbled to Bill's portrait hanging on the living room wall. Her heart was true and those wicked eyes knew it.

The pain in Miss Fanton's heart vanished quickly as she turned the lock on the front door. Bill seemed to smile on the wall as those wicked eyes found it harder to fill the void than he originally thought. It had everything to do the hoop snake's bird house.

(c) 1998 Dayvid Graybill