Terrified of the Outhouse
Sammy was terrified of the outhouse.
He had been scared of it since he was four.
Since the day his mother disappeared.
Why can’t we get indoor plumbing? He asked Daddy.
Daddy did not want a bunch of strangers on the property.
He did not want anyone poking into “our business”.
Sammy had horrifying dreams about the outhouse.
It did not make sense, but they lasted forty years.
One day he remembered something that had been
too awful to remember when he was only four.
He remembered looking down the toilet seat
of the dreaded outhouse and seeing his mother’s face.
That’s when he reported it to the sheriff.
At his murder trial, his daddy screamed at him
“Why did you have to tell them about our business?”
For my mother, Sammy said. For my mother.
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