No Room for Mercy (5 page)

“I ain’t say nothin’. I tried not to bring them
over here but, they got some dirt on me so I had to compromise.”

“Well, today is not a happy day for Mister Spots.”

Walee smiled down at Flacco. “I know that—but they don’t
know that,” he said with a grin as he eyed his sisters standing
just out of earshot.

“They may question why Mister Spots is not here next time, no?
Just like the other two calves? And the little piggies they used to
play with?”

“If they do? I’m gonna tell them the truth.”

“No, no. It’ll break their little hearts. Don’t say
nothing about what will happen to Mister Spots, okay, Walee?”

“Hey? They wanna threaten to expose my late night happy hour?
I’ll hit ‘em where it hurts.” Walee said as he
folded his arms and stuck out his chest.

“You’re going to regret doing that, Senor Walee,”
Flacco warned as he stood up and grabbed Spoonie and Tyke’s
hands. He walked the twins across the loading area to the loading pen
that held Mister Spots and eleven other cattle that were destined to
become someone’s dinner. Flacco said nothing as he opened the
gate and led Spoonie and Tyke inside, handing them fresh straw to
feed their favorite bovine.

Spoonie and Tyke loved the animals on the ranch. The bigger ones they
avoided, but the smaller ones that they knew to be friendly, they
would take a liking to. The twins would often visit their ‘
pets’
to feed and water them, and to just be around creatures who
constantly amazed them both. From the ponies to the many goats,
chickens and calves, Spoonie and
Tyke’s
world was one of exploration and fascination. Little
did they know, however, that their entire understanding of the world
around them would change before day’s end.

“You two ready to go see the turtle now?” Walee asked a
few minutes later, having grown tired of watching his sisters tend to
an animal that was about to go away and never be seen again.

“Yes,” Spoonie said as she gently stoked Mister Spots’s
side. “Bye, Mister Spots! See you next time!”

Tyke hugged the calf and ran her hands across his head before she got
up and said, “Next time we’ll stay longer.”

Flacco made sure that the kids cleared the stockyard after their
hands were sanitized and he watched them walk down to the edge of the
forest where Walee scooped up his turtle and began leading the way
back to the horse field where he was met by Siloam and Twiggy, who’d
just finished riding horses and were now driving a golf cart back to
Ponderosa. Certain that the family’s youngest three were now
safe and in good hands, Flacco returned to the stockyard and resumed
his previous duties.

*******

The sun was beginning to set a few hours later and the family had
been outside for nearly the entire day. Everyone was exhausted as
they began making their way back to Ponderosa and washing up for
dinner. Walee had placed his turtle back into its cage beside a pond
at the edge of the forest and he, Spoonie and Tyke were now walking
back to the patio.

“We should go and see Mister Spots again before dinner. We
played with your turtle all day, Walee. Me and Spoonie could’ve
stayed with Mister Spots if we knew we were going to be back here the
whole day.”

“Mister Spots is gone, Tyke.” Walee said
matter-of-factly.

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Oh!” Spoonie chimed in. “Remember the last calf we
had and that little pig? Momma said they went to a new home. Maybe
Mister Spots went to the new home where our other calf and our pig
went.”

“They went home alright,” Walee chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tyke asked.

“Mister Spots and ya’ little pig friend’s new home
will be in the meat department at the grocery store.”

Spoonie and Tyke couldn’t make sense of what Walee was telling
them; they looked at one another briefly before running up behind
Walee.

“I’m not understanding this,” Spoonie said as she
walked beside her brother. “What does the meat department in a
grocery store have to do with Mister Spots?”

“You know them ribs we was eating earlier today?”

“Yeah,” the twins answered simultaneously.

“Well, that’s what happens when Mister Spots goes to his
new home. They chop off his head, take off all his skin and cut him
up into tiny pieces so we can eat him and his friends.”

Spoonie and Tyke paused in their tracks and covered their lower
faces. “They gone kill Mister Spots?” Tyke asked through
trembling lips.

“They gone kill Mister Spots, ya’ favorite chickens and
even those little pigs who y’all be calling the stinky beasts.
They gone kill all of ‘em. Every time you see those big trucks
back there that mean one of ya’ little animal friends is about
to die.”

“They gone kill Mister Spots?” Tyke cried again in
disbelief.

“What I said? As of now,” Walee said as he looked at his
bare wrist as if he were wearing a watch, “as of now my Rolex
is telling me that Mister Spots is on somebody’s meat hook
being skinned alive and ready to go to the meat market.”

“Mister Spots,” Spoonie and Tyke gasped in shock as they
two took off running towards Ponderosa, crying their little hearts
out in disbelief.

Walee was surprised at his sisters’ reaction. He ran and caught
with Spoonie and Tyke and stood before them, stopping them in their
tracks just beyond the patio. “Move out the way,” Tyke
snapped as she walked around Walee. “Me and Spoonie have
something to ask momma.”

“We have to wash our hands first.” Walee said as the
three climbed the patio stairs and walked amongst the family.

“Okay,” Spoonie remarked as she and Tyke followed Walee
into the home. “But we’re still gonna ask momma what we
have to ask her.”

“Spoonie? You and Tyke can’t say nothing about this to no
one. You can’t say nothing, okay?”

“But Mister Spots was—”

“Listen to me!” Walee said under his breath as he led his
sisters into the bathroom and closed the door. “After we play
softball tomorrow we can go pick out another calf and y’all can
keep it alive until it dies. They can live twenty years or more on
their own.”

“And twenty years is how long?” Spoonie asked as she went
and grabbed three towels out of the spacious walk-in cabinet.

“You two would be around twenty eight or twenty-nine years old.
Does that help you to understand how long twenty years is?”
Walee asked as he dabbed liquid soap into his sisters’ towels.

“That is a long time,” Spoonie replied as she turned on
the water. “But I still want Mister Spots back! He was our pet,
just like you have your turtle!” she snapped.

“And we’re still going to have ask momma if what you said
is really true.” Tyke chimed in as the three began washing
their hands and faces at the four light-grey marble sinks inside the
spacious bathroom.

When Spoonie and Tyke left the bathroom, Walee began to get nervous.
His sisters were really hung up over Mister Spots. He never thought
they would react the way they did once he’d told them the
truth. He only wanted to get back at them for threatening to expose
him playing video games and boiling wieners at night, but things had
spun out of control all of a sudden. He tucked his hands into his
jean pockets and walked out onto the patio to await his fate because
he just knew Spoonie and Tyke were going to let everybody in the
family know what they’d learned from him.

When Walee walked out onto the patio, he saw Spoonie and Tyke sitting
in between Koko and Kimi with Mary and Regina sitting on the opposite
side of the table.

Martha, Bena and Tiva were sitting at another table talking with
Siloam, and Dawk was sitting at a table with his mother and father.

Walee walked over and sat beside Mary and looked over to his sisters.
He was now sorry he’d hurt them, and whatever came of the
situation he would deal with it and accept it as he felt he deserved
it because he truly felt bad about himself. Spoonie and Tyke both had
a disheartened look on their face as they eyed some of the steaks and
ribs in the baskets sitting atop the cart near the grill pit. The
family all held hands and Naomi said prayer before getting up and
walking over to the grill.

“They have some new chicks back there, y’all” Koko
said as she got up to help her mother and father serve dinner.

“I knew they were going to hatch soon. Did you two separate
them and their mother from the rest of the bunch?” Naomi asked
as she wheeled a cart around the patio, Doss sitting baskets of ribs
and steaks out each table and Koko following with another cart filled
dinnerware.

“Yes, ma’am,” Koko replied as she handed Regina a
stack of dinner plates. “And we locked the roosters up before
we left, too, momma,” she added.

Spoonie was sitting beside Kimi with her arms folded in silence. When
Kimi placed two ribs onto a plate and handed it to her, she yelled
aloud, “I’m not eating that! You’re tryna feed me
Mister Spots!”

“Mister who?” Kimi asked in a perplexed manner as she sat
the plate down before Spoonie.

“Mister Spots,” Tyke said while shoving the plate away
from her and her sister.

“Who is Mister Spots, Sinopa?” Kimi asked as she bit into
a rib. “
These ribs are really good,”
she said to
herself.

“He was our animal friend!” Spoonie snapped. “Everybody
always says that the animals were going to a new home, but today we
learned something new! Mister Spots and the rest of his friends are
being made into food and we don’t like it! We’re some bad
people because we’re killing animals and eating them alive!”
she yelled aloud, getting everyone’s attention.

“How you gone kill ‘em and eat ‘em alive, Tyke?”
Kimi asked as she sniggled.

“You know what I mean!”

“Lord, here we go with another jaunt,” Naomi sighed.
“Where’d you here that, Tyke?”

When Tyke pointed over to Walee, the entire family eyed him, some
shaking their heads in disbelief.

“What? What did I do now?” Walee asked, pretending to be
unaware of what a stir he’d caused.

“Why did you tell them that, Walee,” Bay sighed before
she bit into her rib. “You could have explained it much better
and you know that,” she then said as she wiped her mouth with a
napkin.

“
Mister Spots sure taste good, already,”
T-top
said to herself, caring not to indulge in the conversation.

“They was like, ‘let’s go see Mister Spots’,
yada, yada, ya. So I told them the truth about the animals.”
Walee finally admitted, careful not to reveal the real reason for his
upsetting his sisters.

“You went down to them stockyards after I told you not to,
young man?” Naomi asked from her table.

“Flacco walked us across. They really wanted to see their pet
so we just went for a few minutes and then Flacco walked us back to
the open field.

“Walee said Mister Spots head gets cut off and he’s
skinned alive.” Spoonie cut in.

Kimi looked over to Spoonie and shook her head as she chuckled. “If
his head is cut off he can’t be skinned alive because he’s
dead already,” she said through light laughter.

“Momma,” Tyke chimed in. “Do Mister Spots and his
friends go to the meat department at a grocery store?”

“Sometimes, Tyke. Yes they do. But they aren’t harmed.”
Naomi said as she crossed her legs and stared at her daughters.

“How are they not harmed if they’re dead?” Tyke
inquired.

“Because it’s done quick, babies.” Naomi remarked
softly.

“How is it done quickly, momma?” Spoonie asked.

“They put them to sleep first with sleeping pills. They don’t
feel a thing.”

“Sleeping pills?” Tyke wondered aloud.

“Yes. And Mister Spots and animals like him is happy to do
their part for us humans. The animals know what they’re doing,
my loves.”

“Sleeping pills,” Walee said through laughter. “They
don’t use—” he immediately went silent when he saw
his mother eyeing him harshly.

“However they do it—me and Spoonie is not eating meat
ever again! It’s Mister Spots and his friends and we’re
not touchin’ any meat ever again!” Tyke said loudly as
she folded her arms and tucked her chin in. “And I’m
hungry!”

“Well, what you want,” Naomi asked as got up and walked
over towards her youngest daughters. “Would you two like a
salad?”

“No, momma,” Spoonie answered on behalf of her and her
twin. “We want corn on the cob. Is there any corn?”

“I’ll get it,” Doss said as he wiped his hands with
a wet towel. He returned with four corn on the cob and grilled them
while the family chatted and ate.

Koko whispered something to Kimi and for several lingering minutes,
the two couldn’t stop laughing and sniggling.

“I’m gone say it,” Kimi finally blurted out.

“Girl, shut up!” Koko giggled.

“No. Because I bet I’m not the only one thinking it,”
Kimi laughed.

“Thinkin’ what?” Doss asked as he sat the grilled
corn on the table for Spoonie and Tyke.

“That Mister Spots and his friends sure are delicious!”
Kimi blurted out before she and Koko laughed aloud.

Some in the family laughed openly as Spoonie brushed up against Koko,
who lovingly grabbed her little sister.

“I’m sorry, Shima, but I couldn’t let that one
slide. So you and Sinopa are vegetarians now that you know the
truth?” Kimi asked through light laughter.

“Yes we are.”

“For how long?” Naomi inquired. She was surprised over
her youngest daughters’ reaction to learning the truth about
some of the animals on the farm.

“Forever!” Spoonie and Tyke replied in unison.

“Thank you, Walee, for letting me and Spoonie all know about
Mister Spots and his friends,” Tyke added.

“Glad to help out,” Walee responded as he himself bit
into a rib, satisfied that he wasn’t going to get into trouble
for revealing to Spoonie and Tyke what every other family member had
being knowing for years now.