The Crops

Down the corn field roads, deep in the thicket of crops, were stalks that bend in paths, like trails from animals, that led to the lake, to town, to the shed, to what look like escapes and to the flats. Kids played there and stayed for days at a time, feeding off of corn and fish, bread and water. They sometimes stole corn from the shed and traded it in town. They stayed out late in the corn fields fishing at the lake or getting high in the flats (areas where they had all stomped down the stalks and would hang out at). The common people could never find them, and when the farmer called the police, they were never shrewd enough to peel through the corn like Josh, Isaiah, Alecia, Tammy and Hank. Even the younger kids had to escape and did well. They would bring things to trade in town, call various warnings out and listen carefully to the rambles that flowed through the flats.

The teenagers were all dropouts from school and the younger kids were on the same path. They would steal wine from people’s houses, cheeses to munch on, blankets—even radios that worked on batteries. They virtually lived in the corn fields. They would buy alcohol and dope from people that came by. Josh once hitchhiked with a hippie he spotted off of the lake and, giving out good directions and helping them get there, he was giving some marijuana and blotter LSD. The older kids tripped all weekend and even the kids got high on the pot. 

One day Isaiah found a dead body floating in the water. From far away, it looked like a log and he cast out with his rod and reel, but as it moved closer, he could see hair and torn flesh. They poked and prodded the body but left it there and it rotted for days. They took out the teeth and used them to gamble (who had to fish, who had to shop, etc).

Josh was asleep in his room and snuck out at night to go to the corn fields. Isaiah was there rolling teeth in one of the flats. A few children were asleep there, probably drunk. 

“I found another body,” Isaiah said. “It was dumped in the water, too. This time it was a girl. She has nice tits.”

“What’d you do?”

“I took out her teeth like the last guy and dragged her on shore.”

“Let me go see.”

“Okay.”

They split through the corn fields and wound up at the lake where there was a blonde woman, face up with her shirt ripped open, no jeans, a bra and panties and stab wounds all over her body. 

“Gross.”

“We have like thirty teeth,” Isaiah said.

For the next few months the smell of rotting corpses filled the air around the cornfields and the children didn’t come out and play but the teenagers stayed and complained. Alecia said the woman was married to the man. She knew cause she saw it in a dream. 

“They were holding hands. I saw the man grab her by the hair and kiss her neck. They had a picnic set up on a white blanket and there were butterflies in the air,”

“You lie...” Josh said.

“I promise!”

They all laughed.

“Maybe they were married,” Hank said.

Sooner or later, the flesh fell to bones and then only the skeletons were left. No one reported the murders to the police. No one ever really said anything...Isaiah just kept the teeth. The older kids moved along, finding jobs and others hitchhiking far away, and the children took their place, smoking and drinking and having fun. One day Pulīu pulled out a butcher knife and asked in whispers if they wanted to kill somebody.

“We can just tie rocks to the body and dump it in the lake....”

“Evil...” a few replied.