Wallace Breen leaned back, removed the toothpick from his mouth, drank from his beer bottle, and sat there with the beer in one hand and the toothpick in the other, elbows on the armrests, and I sensed that he held the floor.
He said, “I’ll tell you what happened and I’ll tell you what didn’t happen. I was taking a shortcut through the woods that night in 1949, after leaving the VFW. I had an open bottle of Boone’s Farm Apple Wine I was drinking from. I came up behind the house, which was usually dark and deserted and I always walked on by, but that night was different. Two people in the back yard were just silhouettes in front of the bright porchlight. I didn’t even see the guy laying down at first, it was dark. I stepped closer and knelt down on one knee behind a shrub. A tall man, it seemed, had an axe handle resting on his shoulder, blade visible in profile behind him. A shorter man was leaning forward, looking down. When my eyes adjusted to the light a little more, I saw that he was pressing a rifle barrel against someone who was on his knees in front of a tree stump. The man with the rifle said you can either put your head on that stump, or I will shoot you in the back. And, the taller guy said This is a dull axe! If it doesn’t kill you, then you’re free to run! And run fast you son of a bitch or he’ll shoot you in the ass and then the head!”
“Oh, my God,” said Evie. “It’s horrible.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Between poking the rifle against his back and kicking the dude’s feet out from under him, they forced the dude’s head down to rest on the stump, and he shouted don’t do it! Don’t! and Wait! he said. But the guy swung the axe and said run !
“I was scared. I carry the guilt. Of not helping that man, but one guy had a rifle!”
We all looked at him silently, waiting.
As though he felt the pause had lasted long enough, Wallace said, “I think what happened is, the man with the rifle got scared. He freaked out. I think he dropped his gun, jumped over the tree stump, and ran off into the woods. When the axe came down, I cringed you know, and blinked my eyes reflexively. I opened my eyes, I swear he looked like a headless silhouette, for just the brief moment, the position of the porch light, just off to one side of his head.”
“Maybe the guy on the ground jumped up,” said Heavy.
“No, he wouldn’t have had time. I’m telling you, though, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The mystery is, what really happened, and why? Not only that, but the guy whose head was on the stump…I think he is still alive.”
The Astral Pages 