The Animals That Night

Abstract

THE ANIMALS THAT NIGHT We couldn't sleep, my aunt and I, girl and child in the back porch room, so we wrapped ourselves in blankets and slipped on shoes that clopped on the floor like hooves. Outside we stumbled, arms entwined, a slow climb up the hill toward stars, bright eyes of animals crouching in the dark. In the barn our flashlight blazed on the horse crunching fodder and the cow half-kneeling in straw who craned her neck to see us. My aunt said the animals pray on Christmas Eve and I believed her as we walked past sheep bleating something I almost understood, back into our room small and cool as a stall. —Kathy May 78 ...