A Dead Mouse (Part Too)

Wow, that was some heavy stuff. Our story is about halfway finished (or started, if you’re an optimist) and at 4,480 words it couldn’t be any sooner. You might want to take a moment to go get yourself a nice cold beverage, stretch your arms or maybe take a quick bathroom break. It’s okay, I’ll be waiting right here. I mean it’s not like I have much of a choice, me being just a bunch of words on a computer screen and all. Don’t worry about me, while you’re away I’ll keep myself entertained with the vocal stylings of one of the greatest MCs in the world, Mos Def:



Escúchela. La ciudad respirando.



So much on my mind that I can’t recline

Blastin’ holes in the night ‘til she bled sunshine

breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine

breathe out, weed smoke retraced the skyline



Heard the base ride out like an ancient matin’ call

I can’t take it y’all, I can feel the city breathin’

chest heavin’, against the flesh of the evenin’

Sigh before I die, like the last train leavin’



You’re back? Good. Now we can continue. Oh, but before we do me and the author were just talking and we decided that it would be appropriate to throw this out there. You know if you happened to have some sort of, shall we say “illicit substances” in your possession, you might be able to “enhance” your reading experience by smoking…I mean using them. Think about it, how often does the voice who’s supposed to be narrating the story actually talk to you directly? I could picture Tommy Chong reading something like this and being all like “woah, man! This book is talking to me.” I’m not encouraging you to break the law or anything like that. That would be a crime and me and the author both hold the criminal justice system in the highest regards, we really do. And we all agree that 100 years in prison is a more than fair sentence for drug trafficking even though that same convict would probably be out on probation right now if only he had killed or raped somebody. I’m just saying that certain experts whose names me and the author both forgot, say that certain substances like marijuana for example, can increase “creativity” from eight to eleven times. Not sure what unit of measurement they’re using, but who cares? It’s all up to you and you’re discretion.

Well that was our shameless plug for all the potheads out there, so now for the rest of this exciting tale. Daniel ran out of the house and down the street as fast as his legs could carry him, which was pretty fast seeing as how he was his team’s first string running back and all. He ran until the muscles in his legs began to scream, his lungs tightened up and the back of his throat felt like a raisin that had been left in the sun too long. And then he ran some more. He kept running until the nice big houses with their freshly cut grass and brick mailboxes gradually transformed into not so big houses. The wooden fences turned into chain link ones that were all rusted and looked like the Rottweiler that was barking its head off in the front yard could easily push it over with one paw if it wasn’t chained to the metal faucet on the side of the house. When he finally reached familiar territory he stopped, let’s say he stopped in front of a McDonald’ s, no a Sonic, yeah that works. He stopped in front of a Sonics Drive-In, not one of the new ones that have been sprouting up all over Denton County at about that time, but an old one where the service was really slow and half the time the green apple slushy you ordered isn’t even mixed up real good so that it’s all slush on the top and syrup on the bottom. If you ever eat at Sonic, don’t let those guys serve you drinks like that. They’ve got machines in there that can mix it up the way it’s supposed to be. Anyway, he stopped on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant and leaned over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Daniel knew that Mr. Gein couldn’t have been following him by the time he reached the park which was down the street from that big brick house. But for some reason once he started running he never felt like stopping. It’s probably got something to do with football. Mind you, this is Texas we’re talking about so everything has something to do with football.

Daniel thought to himself, “What was he trying to do?” as he looked over to the pavilion of the restaurant, watching one of the carhops skate over to a customer’s table to deliver their cheese coneys and chili fries. She had on a pair of those really small black shorts that volleyball players wear which are probably against the company’s official dress code but no one ever says anything because it helps bring in a lot of business. Daniel thought about the way Mr. Gein had spoken to him at the house. His voice was all airy and soft, kind of like the way those guys talk in those corny high school dramas, you know like the one where the guy is standing alone in a boat in a lake or something at the beginning of each episode. Daniel tried to picture Mr. Gein as one of those corny White guys, trying to sound all sensitive and romantic when he talked to a girl. Only instead of a girl it was Daniel in her place. The thought alone made Daniel feel like puking all over the sidewalk, or maybe it was the aroma of the chili fries.

Daniel started walking again. He reached into his pocket for his mp3 player but then he changed his mind, deciding that he should keep his ears open for the sound of Mr. Gein’s old pickup rattling around, coming to snatch him up. He reached his destination several blocks later, a single story house with sky blue paneling that kind of looked like real wood from the street but once you made it to the front door you could tell that it was metal from the rust spots around the edges. Daniel sighed as he reached for the doorknob and let himself in. He walked through the dim hallway which was illuminated only by the fluorescent lighting from the kitchen on the right and the living room window on the left. He walked past the display case full of little ceramic cartoon angels whose eyes were so big and adorable that you practically wanted to throw up every time you looked at them. He made his way into the kitchen where Mrs. Buck was stirring a plastic pitcher filled with dark blue beverage. Mrs. Buck was a White woman who had long curly brown hair with more than a few silver strands laced throughout. Her face and arms were tan from the long hours she spent outside tending to her garden. There were wrinkles around her mouth and below her eyes, but when you looked at her you would be able to tell that she was a pretty attractive woman about ten years ago.

As Mrs. Buck turned away from the sink she noticed Daniel standing in the kitchen entryway and greeted him with a simple, “Oh, hello Daniel.”

Daniel replied with a low pitched, “hey,” as he took a seat at the table and pulled off his work gloves.

Mrs. Buck set the pitcher down and asked, “Thirsty?”

Daniel simply nodded his head as he stared at the faded images of pastel flowers on the fold out kitchen table.

“Well go ahead and get yerself a glass.”

Daniel stood up and picked up the wooden step stool from beneath the telephone mounted on the wall. He set it down in front of one of the cupboards above the kitchen counter and stepped up on top of it to get himself a plastic cup.

He picked up the pitcher but before he could pour it into the glass Mrs. Buck said, “yer’ gonna’ need some ice for that.”

Daniel sighed as he set the pitcher down and Mrs. Buck watched him with one eyebrow raised as he walked over to the fridge and pulled out a few cubes from the ice tray. After Daniel had poured himself some of the drink he returned to his seat. He didn’t drink right away, but simply watched the condensation forming on the outside before it began to trickle down.

Mrs. Buck broke the silence as she turned on the electric oven with a simple, “how was work today?”

Daniel gulped down half of his raspberry flavored drink before he answered, “it sucked.”

“Oh, it couldn’t have been that bad. At least you got outta the house today.”

Daniel set his glass down and replied, “the only good thing about work today is that I’m never goin’ back there. I quit, I’m never doin that stupid job again.”

Mrs. Buck was opening and closing the cupboards above the stove in search of her bottle of vanilla extract as she calmly replied, “You Quit? Now why’d you wanna’ go and do somethin’ like that? Mr. Gein told me , you’re one of his best workers.”

“Cuz I hate ‘im.”

Mrs. Buck found her vanilla extract and set it down next to the stove as she replied, “Now Daniel, that’s not a very Christian thing to say about somebody. You don’t really mean that.”

Daniel crossed his arms as he replied, “I don’t care if it is. And I do hate ‘im. I hate his fuckin’ guts and I hope he dies.”

Mrs. Buck set her metal mixing bowl down next to the vanilla extract and turned a very angry eye toward Daniel as she said, “Now that’s enough of that! I told you before I won’t tolerate that kind of language in my house.”

Daniel pushed his chair away from the table and began to storm out of the kitchen, but he stopped when Mrs. Buck said, “Don’t leave your dirty gloves on the table.” Daniel let out a very audible groan as he turned around and snatched up his gloves. He mumbled, “I still hate ‘im.” See, I told you those gloves were important. Okay they weren’t that important but they did add a little tension to the scene didn’t they?

As Daniel stormed out of the kitchen Mrs. Buck pointed a wire whisk at him and said, “you better watch it, mister! Don’t think I won’t wash your mouth out with soap.”

The sound of bass pumping through the walls could be heard as Daniel approached his bedroom door. He stepped inside and walked past the television where his friend Joseph was engaged in a heated game of NBA 2K8 with Daniel’s brother Josh. As always Josh was playing with the Dallas Mavericks while Joseph had the Phoenix Suns.

Josh was wearing his brother’s football helmet as he sat on his knees laughing hysterically at the screen.

Joseph mumbled, “Hola güey,” to Daniel before he jumped up and shouted, “this is bullshit, man! I’ve played you with this team before, you’re not THAT good.”

More character descriptions: Joseph’s parents are both Guatemalan immigrants but since he’s spent most of his life in Texas and Oklahoma, Joseph picked up a lot of slang from the Mexican nationals who inhabited the area (mostly curse words). He has black shoulder length hair and a small scar below his left eye, courtesy of Daniel’s right hook. It’s kind of a long story but I’ll try to make it short. Daniel and Joseph haven’t always been best friends. They even got into a fight one time when they were both in the first grade. To this day the two of them still argue about who started the fight even though neither of them can remember what it was about. The fight went on until their coach separated them, but it wasn’t before Joseph knocked out one of Daniel’s front teeth. Not to make it seem like he hit him too hard or anything, it was just a baby tooth and it was on its way out anyway. The new one has already grown back. But Daniel did manage to bloody Joe’s up nose a little bit. The funny thing about the whole ordeal is the fact that in the days following the fight, the two of them practically became brothers. Daniel ran away from his foster parents a couple of times when they were still moving between temporary homes, but every time he ran they always found him at Joe’s house. He almost prayed thanks to Jesus when he got put in a home just down the street from Joe’s house. Joseph wasn’t like most of Daniel’s other friends. If you got arrested, chances are Joseph would not be the one to bail you out, but instead he’d probably be sitting in the cell right next to you making fun of the fact that your arresting officer’s name sounds similar to the word “anus”. If Joseph were your best friend you wouldn’t be surprised when he walks into your house without knocking. And he always calls your parent’s “Mom” and “Dad” which really irritates the hell out of them. He won’t try to calm you down if you’re about to get into an altercation with somebody, but he’d probably punch the guy in the face before you had a chance to hit him yourself. But the reason Daniel always hung out with Joseph was because of his brutal, unrelenting honesty. He always told the truth even in times when the truth was inappropriate, like the time Josh fell off his bike when he was first learning to ride without training wheels. Josh scraped his knee on the asphalt and started crying. Joseph calmly walked over to the child, put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and with a gentle smile he said, “nobody likes a whiner.”

Daniel walked over to the bunk bed that he and his brother shared and laid himself down with his arms behind his head on the bottom bunk. Isaac, the third foster child who had been staying with Mrs. Buck about three months before Daniel and Josh showed up, was lying on his bed listening to the loud rap music blaring from the speakers on the stereo next to his bed as he flipped through the pages on his Japanese manga book. Isaac was a little more than two years older than Daniel and Joseph and when he wasn’t busy reading one of his mangas or flexing his muscles in front of the bathroom mirror, he was tormenting Daniel and his friends. You know, I realize that as a narrator I’m supposed to be all unbiased and descriptive and all that, but I don’t really like this character that much so I don’t think I’m going to go into much detail with him. He’s a light skinned black kid, almost to the point that his skin is the color of coffee when you put too much creamer in it. A few shades lighter than Daniel and Josh. He has this white spot in his hair on the right side of his head that’s about the size of a Kennedy half dollar but not quite shaped the same. Daniel’s first impression of him was that he was a huge faker. If he were White he’d be one of those guys who likes to walk around the mall wearing one of those skin tight American Eagle polos and a camouflage cap while he talks really loud on his phone so everybody can hear about how drunk he got last night. But he’s not, so instead he where’s Timberland boots and black jeans in the middle of the summer with a muscle shirt on so everyone can look at the stupid tattoo on his shoulder that his dad bought him before he got his third strike. But that’s not why Daniel doesn’t like him, well not the only reason. Their first week there, Isaac pushed Josh onto the floor when he wouldn’t stop playing the Xbox and Daniel jumped in. He got a couple of good punches in before Isaac pinned him down on the floor and started hitting him in his face. Daniel left that fight with a swollen eye and a bloody nose. They’ve learned to get along since then, but they were more or less at each other’s throats most of the time.

Joseph shook his head when the Mavericks took possession of the ball again saying, “you gotta be cheatin’ or somethin’.”

Josh laughed and said, “bein’ a better player ain’t cheatin’.”

On the tv screen, Josh Howard of the Mavericks passed the ball to Dampier, but the Suns managed to block it allowing Nash to pick it up and run it down the court. After doing two decisive spins around Dirk Nowitzki Joseph managed to make a layup with Nash. Josh grunted angrily for failing to stop the play.

Joseph stared at Josh with his mouth open and said, “You see the ridiculous shit I gotta do jus to make a damn layup?”

Josh simply shrugged his shoulders and began to run the ball down the court with Dampier again.

Joseph grabbed the face mask of Daniel’s helmet and said, “Its that helmet that’s messin’ me up. Take that shit off!”

Josh cried, “No!” as he paused the game and held onto the helmet with both hands.

It was no use. Joseph pulled the helmet off of Josh’s head and pushed it underneath the bunk bed.

Joseph laughed and said, “what now, güey? Josh glared at Joseph as he picked up the controller and said, “I don’t care, yer still gonna lose.”

Joseph shook his head and said, “Whatever. Hey Daniel? You can have next after I make my comeback right quick.”

Daniel replied, “I don’t wanna’ play.”

Josh laughed and said, “Comeback? Watch this.”

The Mavs held onto the ball until there were only three seconds left on the shot clock, at which time Dampier went in for another layup. The Suns got the ball back just in time to lob it from the half court line, missing the basket completely.

Josh smugly replied, “that’s three in a row.”

Joseph held the controller out to Daniel and grumbled, “whatever. This game sucks anyway.”

Daniel groaned, “I said I don’t wanna play.”

Joseph stood up and turned down the volume on the stereo before he sat down on the floor in front of the bunk bed and asked, “what’s your problem?”

Daniel answered, “I jus quit my job.”

“¿Por’ que’?”

“Cuz Gein’s a fuckin’ homo. That’s why.”

Isaac started laughing as he flipped the page on his manga.

Daniel lifted his head and glared at Isaac as he asked, “you think that’s funny?”

To which Isaac replied, “I think it’s funny you made such a big deal about some dude slappin you on the ass.”

Josh said to Joseph, “hey, shut off yer controller if you ain’t gonna play no more.”

Daniel snapped at Isaac, “that’s not why I quit!”

Joseph asked, “so what was it then? He do that same shit?”

Daniel replied, “No!…I mean…” he sat up on the bed and wrapped his arms around his knees, staring at the end of his bed as he said, “not exactly. It was worse this time…a lot worse.”

Josh yelled, “Hey! Shut off yer controller!” and then Joseph replied, “shut up!” as he tossed the game controller to him.

Josh mumbled, “punk!” as he turned off the controller and put a different game into the console.

Daniel shook his head and said, “it was so gross. I don’t even know what he was tryin’ to do.”

Joseph said, “you should call the cops. He could go to jail for that shit, güey.”

“I’m not talkin to those assholes. They’re the ones that locked Dad up. We wouldn’t even be here if it wudn’t for them.”

Josh replied, “but they said Dad wasn’t good enough to take care of us.”

Daniel moved to the edge of the bed and looked down at Josh with his hands on his knees as he said, “He did a better job than the Cohens or Mister Carter, didn’t he?”

“I guess but…”

“Or what about that place we spent the night at in Grapevine? You remember that?”

Josh trembled a little bit and stared at the floor as he answered timidly, “yeah.”

“None of that stuff woulda happened if we still lived with Dad.”

Josh looked back at his older brother and said, “buy Miss Buck’s pretty nice to us, though.”

Daniel sort of laughed as he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Miss Buck? I never woulda met Mister Gein if it hadn’t been for her.”

Let’s cut off this line of dialogue before it gets too long and boring. When I was learning to become a narrator they taught us about this thing called a “talking head.” It’s what you get when a line of dialogue goes on and on without any tags or descriptions and whatnot. I don’t think I forgot to put any tags on there, okay maybe once or twice, but the fact is that even the tags get stale after a while so we’re just going to move on. Their conversation eventually became less serious the way they often do with kids. Josh proceeded to play a war game on the Xbox, while Isaac continued reading his comic book and Joseph tried to cheer up Daniel by popping his thumb out of its joint and making it wiggle in a really disturbing yet fascinating way.

Joseph popped his thumb back in place as he said to Daniel, “see? Told ya’ I could do it.”

To which Daniel replied, “I didn’t say you couldn’t do it, I said you shouldn’t do it. Normal people aren’t s’possed to be able to do that.”

Joseph started bouncing on the bed as he said, “yeah, this one time my dad was working on the car and my big sister hit that lil’ thing that holds the hood up while yer workin’ on it, ya know? And the hood fell down on my hand and it like um, broke my thumb and messed up the nerves ‘n stuff. So now I can pop it out whenever I want and it doesn’t even hurt.”

Isaac mumbled, “that’s fuckin’ gross.”

Joseph continued, “I’m also real good at Bloody Knuckles too cuz I can’t feel nuthin’. Hey Isaac, wanna play Bloody Knuckles, man?”

Isaac answered, “no,” as he turned up the volume on his stereo.

Joseph replied, “Ha! Pussy.”

Isaac gave Joseph a particularly sour look before returning his attention to his book. Joseph turned his attention to Daniel once again, shoving his fist in front of his face as he asked, “How bout you?”

Daniel who started laughing and pushed away Joseph’s arm as he said, “No way, dude. the hell away from me.”

“Aw, what’s wrong lil baby, you scared?”

Daniel shoved Joseph as he said, “Naw I ain’t scared, I’m jus not dumb enough to play you at a game I know I can’t win at.”

Joseph shoved Daniel back, “So why do still play me at basketball then?”

Daniel laughed, “we both know I can hoop better than you all day.”

Joseph stood up and said, “Prove it!”

Daniel stood up as well and responded, “Bet! Hey Josh, where’s yer ball?”

Josh, who by then was laying on his stomach, nodded his head toward the closet without tearing his eyes from the screen as he said, “s’over there.”

Daniel stepped over his brother and picked up the ball. As Joseph and Daniel were about to open the bedroom door, Mrs. Buckingham stepped inside and said, “turn down that music for heaven’s sake. We’re all gonna go deaf.”

Isaac sighed as he reached down to the stereo system below him and turned the knob controlling the volume.

Mrs. Buck said to Daniel, “Tom just called. He wants to see you at his shop.”

To which Daniel shoved his hands in his pocket and responded, “I don’t wanna see him.”

Mrs Buck put her hands on her hips and said, “Now Daniel, Mister Gein’s been a friend of the family for a long time. And he’s helped out a lotta kids just like you.”

Isaac chuckled, “bet he has,” as he flipped the page on his manga.

Daniel replied, “I don’t care. I never wanna see that guy again.”

Mrs. Buck rubbed the side of her head as she said, “Daniel, I don’t know what’s going on, but he just wants to talk to you is all. I think he’s just gonna give you yer last pay check, alright.”

Daniel shook his head, “tell ‘im he can keep it.”

Joseph stepped forward and interrupted, “hey c’mon Miss Buck. If he really doesn’t wanna go…”

Mrs. Buck folded her arms and said, “You know, your mother also called. She said she wants to see you home right now.”

Joseph hung his head and said, “¡Aye chingado!” as he walked out of the room.

“You watch it!” said Mrs. Buck as Joseph walked down the hallway, “don’t think I don’t know what that means!”

She turned back to Daniel and said, “Now I’m through asking you. You need to march down there and explain to Mister Gein why you want to quit or no TV or video games for a week.”

Daniel’s voice got all shaky, you know the way little kids do before they’re burst into tears. He tensed up his shoulders as he said, “I don’t care what you do. I’m not goin’ back there.”

Mrs. Buck sighed as she kneeled down and put her hand on Daniel’s shoulder. She put on a convincingly sympathetic face and said, “look Daniel,  I know these past couple of months have been tough on you and Josh. But you gotta’ lighten up. You’re never gonna be happy ‘til you learn to trust and forgive.”

Daniel pulled his hands out of his pockets and began to plead, “but he…”

Mrs. Buck put her finger on his lips before he could continue. She put both hands on each of his shoulders in a way that reminded Daniel of his mother whenever she was trying to explain to him that his Dad would be spending yet another Christmas in Afghanistan. Oh I forgot to mention that Daniel’s father was in the Marines. It’s not as important a detail as the gloves but I thought I should mention.

“Now listen,” she said, “I’m not saying you have to work for him anymore if you don’t want to. But he was nice enough to give you a job, so I think at the very least you owe him an explanation as to why yer quitting, okay?”

Daniel looked at Mrs. Buck’s eyes for a moment and suddenly felt incredibly sorry. He looked at the floor and rubbed his nose real quick before he nodded his head.

Mrs. Buck smiled the way mothers do when they want to comfort their kids. She hugged Daniel and said, “That’s a good boy.”

Even though Daniel hated it when Mrs. Buck called him a “good boy”, you know because it kind of sounds like she’s talking to a dog and all, but he did like it when Mrs. Buck gave him a hug. It was the closest thing he could think of to hugging his real mom. Daniel remembered when he and Josh first came to her house. They were both a little worried after a few bad experiences at some of the other homes, but when she smiled and hugged them both, Daniel knew that this place would be different. Even a thousand Isaac’s couldn’t ruin this place.

Daniel put on a white t-shirt before he went out to the garage to get his bike. Joseph was still standing out there as he wheeled his bike to the driveway.

Joseph walked up to him, hands in pockets as he said, “still makin’ you go?”

Daniel sighed as he nodded his head.

Joseph spit on the ground before replying, “that’s bullshit man. Lemme go with you. He won’t be able to do shit if it’s two of us there.”

Daniel pushed his bike to the edge of the driveway as he said, “naw, it’s alright. I’ll stay close to the door, I won’t let ‘im get close enough to try anything. Besides, I don’t want you to get into anymore trouble with yer mom. What’d she want anyway?”

Joseph shrugged his shoulders and replied, “No sé. Prolly jus wants me to clean the litter box or somethin’. I hate havin’ so many pinche cats at home.”

“Alright güey, I’ll hit you up when I get back.”

“Cool güey. Hey don’t think I forgot about our game. It’s on, after you get back.”

Daniel laughed as he mounted his bike and said, “I’m countin’ on it.”