March 29, 2005: Vesta Dark Vesta Light
Ballade de Bethany
part four

After barfing when she was queened at the beginning, Bethany inspected the damage to Saturday afternoon. The roof was blown off. "We are alive."

Lives in a nearby community were walking through, inspecting the smithereens. "We are God put on us."

Near the crystal, death was more of a presence in Bethany. A sickly elderly couple and their grown son.

The couple's bodies were found underneath. Their son was hurled even farther, passing through Bethany and speaking to another home and embedding face first in the back wall of a closet. "He was taken alive," they said.

Bethany stood guard over the bodies until they said they did not know the neighbors and authorities declined to give their names. But they did say they was cared for.

The gruesome deaths devastated. "We don't know why," said the owner of the trailer. "Doesn't make sense. Had the money."

Bethany lives on in the community road and into our work truck. Nothing was left of the concrete slab.

Joseph Bradshaw