I

We took the animal to the woods, me and her.
We, its parents took it on a walk. Where we had walked for a long time before, for passages of time. During which we figured and discussed everything that we saw, as we walked. And we saw a lot. More than we’d ever seen before. Open-eyed.

Before, the words would pass between us in beams of understanding from our eyes. The animal grew. Always trotting in front at our feet. Little antlers pointed forward. Its black eyes glinting. We looked on it with a creator’s love. And the woods, The bright green leaves covered the darker greens in layers and screening the brilliant cerulean overhead, simultaneously deep and bright. The heat was sometimes intense.

Now though the sky is cool and grey, with defined cloud. The tiniest breeze soothed. The leaves were a warm brown in the overhead canopy and made up the crunchy forest floor. We knew we’d come here for a different reason this time as we made our way between and past houses near to mine. Some houses were just like mine. Paths ran alongside quiet roads with cobbled stone walls. The outlying surroundings.

Walking with our animal, our faces turned down with the understanding as we walked, sloping forward over the carpet of leaves. Over the miniature woodland hills and between the trees. This time, only necessary exchanges, final agreements, using old mechanisms of reason long ago forged. Peaceful but agreed.

We’ll never go there again, to where we took our little animal. We may talk about it but we’ll never walk there again. Its eyes always trusting. Its trot always content. The brutality will fade, and time will make it seem less of a butchery.

The only problem is that without people, there is no such thing as a reasonable decision. And sometimes the reality of this becomes apparent.