Preserving Things - Jessica Maria Tuccelli

Under the glare of midday sun, the bat squirmed as though it were alive, but Maggie knew it was only the maggots that made its chest move that way. Her fascination with dead things made her fit right in with her three brothers. Why only a week before, Paddy, the eldest at fourteen, had drudged a flour sack from their quarry. I AM the resurrection and the life. When he opened the dripping bag, she hadn’t shirked away but peered in with the same primal curiosity due any boy. INTO thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth.

Inside, four kittens, calicos, not more than six weeks old, lay in a heap; dead of course. Maggie hadn’t wondered who might have done such a thing. She knew. She was only eight, but since their da had died, play time for the Mulligan brood had become a part of the past too. So far, they had worked in the quarry every day that summer, and it gave Maggie plenty of time to learn the habits and pleasures of the two young men whom her mother had hired to handle the derrick and the galamander.

After Paddy gave her the flour sack (he was generous that way), she had lifted each kitten out, one by one, cradling each one’s head so it wouldn’t flop about. I KNOW that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God. They couldn’t have been dead for long. Their tiny bodies weren’t yet bloated, though their tongues had turned that awful blue. Their scent hadn’t bothered her either, that strange mix of rotten meat and something cloying and fruit sweet that Maggie knew was decay.

Though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God. She dug them each a grave next to Da, in the hill behind the house, scooping out the damp black soil with her hands. She dug until the black turned to a dry grey, and clumps of quartz and feldspar crumbled between her fingers. Before she placed each kitten in its grave, she named it and blessed it. The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. She even stroked their bellies. Their fur, now stiff with granite sludge, had bristled against her palm.

She would bless and bury the bat too, when it came time. For now, she left it alone on the warm ground to let maggots do what maggots do and went back to work in the quarry.