…if all the rabbits ever gets together we gonna have a lot more rabbits than we already got…
Monroe D. Underwood
It was after eleven o’clock.
I sat on the steps of the Radish River Drug Store.
I smoked a V-shaped Camel and watched anxiously for Brandy’s car.
Radish River had busted at the seams and all the stuffing was coming out.
Half of the business district windows had been shattered.
Drunks sprawled in doorways and gutters.
I heard the drum of feet pounding up and down the night alleys.
Now and then a man would shout or a woman would scream.
I watched an angry rabbit pursue two terrified Great Danes down the middle of the street.
From around the corner came the sound of singing.
“We’ll Be Standing ’Neath the Streetlight at Ten on Friday Night Singing Songs of Love in Harmony.”
Probably the boys of the 000th Field Artillery.
They had an excellent tenor.
Mayor Bradford Boone came by.
He was leading a large group of men.
He carried a rope with a nasty-looking loop at one end.
Three of the men carried spades and one had an enormous white leather Bible with gilt-edged pages and a gold cross on its front.
Mayor Bradford Boone said Purdue have you seen Suicide Lewisite?
I shrugged.
I said not since the end of the first half.
The bartender from the little tavern came running up.
He was carrying a pick.
He said hey I just heard that Lewisite is trying to shoot himself with the West Side American Legion cannon.
There was a loud report from the west.
There was an odd fluttering sound overhead.
There was an explosion.
The Radish River City Hall went up in a vast cloud of flying debris.
Mayor Boone said let’s go boys.
The man with the Bible said maybe he’s already dead.
Mayor Boone said that’s okay.
He said we’ll hang the sonofabitch anyway.
They hurried off into the darkness.
An old man limped up to me.
He shoved a topless cigar box in my direction.
He said sir would you care to contribute to the fund for a new Radish River scoreboard?
I threw a dollar into the box.
The old man went away.
I shrugged.
In Radish River they take their football very seriously.