Florida Reclamation Zone 2133
They take turns digging the grave, the boy and his sister. It takes longer than they expect - the dog seemed larger in death somehow - and so by the time they are finished, the sun is high and the air all but saturated with sticky heat.
"Is mom coming?" he asks as he drops is shovel.
Around them little robots flit like hummingbirds. They are luring and trapping mosquitos. They built them together last summer, hid them in a crate under the porch through the winter and turned them on again a few weeks ago.
Elizabeth arranges moonflowers and tangled vines at the bottom of the hole. She only shrugs at his question. "I don't think so. Her door is locked. She won't come out."
He nods sharply and they lift the old bloodhound gently down onto the bed of vines and flowers, and begin to cover it with dirt.
Elizabeth seems fine, until suddenly she doesn't. With a low moan she drops to her knees, and claws through the dirt until some of the reddish brown fur is exposed again. She brushes a little patch clean and caresses it with her fingers and all the time cries silently.
He crouches beside her, and places a hand on her shoulder, and they stay there long enough that the muscles in his legs begin to cramp. Then, they again stand and continue to fill the hole.
"It was nearly me that he shot, I think," the boy says at last, as his sister arranges more moonflowers on the loose earth. And then, "Maybe we shoulda used a box. Like a coffin. I didn't like seeing the dirt in his fur either."
Elizabeth answers slowly. "I will be one of us, one of these days." And then "Charles, if it's me, make sure I get a box. I think he'll want to just make me disappear, just throw me in the swamp. But don't let him Charles. Please don't. I'm afraid of the gators. I don't want gators to eat me. Even if I am dead."
Charles frowns uneasily. "Hey darlin', don't say stuff like that. You're going t'be fine. Nothin bad will happen."
Elizabeth spits. She has mud under her fingernails, mud on the hem of her white sundress, mud on the tips of her loose, blonde hair. "Something bad happened to Maverick."
"Maverick? I thought his name was Hornet?"
Elizabeth shakes her head. "Nah, Hornet was the one he ran over. The one with the spot like a heart."
"Yeah, you're right," the boy agrees. "I forgot about that."
