Family Trait

James Higgins

July 30, 2023

Something about life made Mary Pence put

the barrel of the thirty-eight in her open mouth

then pull the trigger. She was nearing sixty-five,

widowed, old house falling down around her.

Herb had survived two heart attacks, kept on

driving the dump truck, third one got him

at fifty-eight.  Son, Jimmy Don was the local

distributor for the Abilene newspaper,

responsible for making sure the paper

got delivered each morning, building

circulation in Merkel, helping sell ads.

Abilene was sixteen miles away, people

might go there to shop, beat the prices charged

by Merkel’s small-town grocers and drug

stores, but no one cared much about the news

from Abilene, got it on tv stations every night.

Anyhow, no need to pay for delivery. Jimmy

Don married, local girl, had two kids, rented

a house on the south side near the tracks.

Later, some said it was his job, maybe he

just missed being a boy, running wild,

hunting, fishing, beating all comers

at the pool hall or maybe it was just

something about his life too,

made him cock his deer rifle,

hold it against his chest, pull

the trigger and die there

without a note to say goodbye,

no reason why.

Born in Abilene, James Higgins spent the first fifteen years of his life in Texas, living in San Antonio during the school year, then spending most summers with his dad in the little town of Merkel, where both his parents were born. Two different worlds, city life vs. small town.

Author’s note: names changed to protect privacy.