Abattoir Page #3

Owl

agh!

What is he building?

Please just tell me what he's building!

The miracle of new English.

Listen to me.

I know the sky is falling for you.

But you need to back off,

and let me do my job.

Go home.

I'll be five minutes behind you.

Sh*t.

License and registration.

That's real clever. I like that.

Care to put your feet up in our

well-appointed lounge while you wait?

- Are you ok?

- Do I not look ok?

Actually, no.

If you're looking for service,

you have to go back

about four miles in the other direction.

Well, I'm actually just passing through

on my way to new English, officer,

or is it trooper?

It's sheriff.

This is not a town you "pass through".

It's barely a town that you live in.

What brings you

to this part of the world?

I'm a real-estate reporter.

Just doing a little house-hunting.

Well, here's some free reporting.

Nothing's been built, bought,

or sold in new English in decades.

All the houses are family-owned,

and passed down.

And if it wouldn't be for that,

you'd be walking through a ghost town.

My advice? Act as if you were.

Miss talben, if I seem inhospitable,

take it for hospitality.

This is a small town.

They don't take much to strangers.

Why's that?

They're strange.

Excuse me?

Hello?

Excuse me?

We close in five minutes.

Good day.

I just need

archived birth and death records.

You might actually know the person

I'm trying to find.

Eulalia Howard?

I don't know her.

Never heard of her.

Ok.

How about local newspaper archives?

Town records?

Local histories?

Alright. Thank you for your help.

I'm just gonna show myself around.

Well, as long as you show yourself

out that door in four minutes.

That's my car!

Goddammit!

Ok, Howard...

Jesus! You scared me.

I have that effect on people.

Alicia.

Call me Allie, or I will grimace!

- Julia.

- On.

Julia.

I don't meet many strangers.

Oh.

You are making me uncomfortable, Julia.

Oh.

I'm sorry. I was starting to think that

no one in new English

had any social graces.

This town soured

long before you were born, dear.

I could tell by the warm welcome.

Frigid, right? Well, f*** 'em!

Town this small, this old,

you can measure its age in secrets.

Like the rings on a redwood.

What brings you to me?

Eulalia Howard.

She was my mother.

Julia.

Hate to be the one brings you this news.

But cancer took eulalia

about 30 years back.

I bought her property back in '85.

You knew her?

In passing.

A town this small,

everybody knows everybody.

Well, I think it's time you headed back

to where you come from.

I'm Sony?

Best thing you could do

is put this town in your rear view.

Now go.

I buried my sister

and her entire family last week.

So, I will leave your porch,

but I am not leaving new English.

Oh, Julia.

Your face, as pretty as it is,

it might be the last new thing

that I ever see.

So, a blanket and a bed,

that's the least I could do, right?

Come on in.

After you, milady.

So...

At one point,

this was a bed and breakfast.

That being said, you are my first guest.

All these vintage things.

It's like the inside of my head.

Remind me to clean this place.

Oh, forget that.

You'd do better out here with a tin can

and a really long piece of string.

- So, no-go on cellular, huh?

- No-go, no-go, no-go.

No cable, no gridlock, no fast food.

And no deal till you drink with

the town witch. Come to poison you.

- How do you like your whisky?

- In a glass.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Cheers, Julia.

Cheers.

So are you from new English, Allie?

Mmm.

Born, raised, and surely will die.

Are they doing construction

out on the forest?

- Cut right to the chase.

- Help me fill in the blanks, please.

You should have seen this town

in its day.

Now it's dying by decades.

Year by year.

It's shrinking like the skin

on my bones. I'm an old woman now.

Old face, old hair, old hands.

Big veins, feet that feel like

they're a thousand years old.

Wasting away just like this town.

Allie, who's jebediah crone?

What's the point of having secrets...

If you got no one to share them with?

Terrible thing to die before your time.

The only thing worse

is dying on your feet.

That was us back then.

But worst of all...

...is watching your children

die before you.

You remember how

the dust bowl preachers of the 1930s,

they came into the wasteland,

and they gave people god?

The grapes of wrath. I read the book.

Well, jebediah crone...

He came from the wasteland,

and he took god from us.

For a moment of his glory, this.

There's the public record

you can see at the library.

And then there is my record.

There's things that I save.

Things that this town...

Might wish lost.

Should have burned this. Surely

would destroy a lot of people's lives.

Here.

Allow me.

I love old things.

Then you're gonna love new English.

When the town fell, we all fell with it.

We got broke. We got sick.

We blamed each other.

We blamed ourselves.

Then came crone with an answer.

He said:
"Blame god."

So much has been taken from you,

from this town.

From god-fearing people.

To understand jebediah crone,

you can't hear just about the man.

You have to hear the man himself.

False scripture you have in your hands.

Make a testament

to what you hold most dear.

The loved ones,

your homes, your children!

Write it down. Put it on parchment.

Hold it high

for this counterfeit god to see!

Hallelujah!

Now, my children,

in this time of destitution...

...tainted by ruin...

...we have struggled,

and been stolen from.

Denied ourselves and been left empty.

Send up a prayer, like a child's

balloon, like prideful icarus,

and watch it burn before heaven.

But bury it deep in rot, in filth,

and watch it take root in hell.

He'd opened our eyes,

and blinded us at the same time.

Gave us control without morals.

Or mercy.

It's unspeakable, the things

a person will do not to feel powerless.

So imagine what

a thousand might do together?

That sacrifice is required.

This ailing boy, so undeserving,

can indeed be healed!

As this town can be made whole again

by power and pleasure!

By wealth and dominion!

But first, lambs must rise to lions!

Beg miracles from murder!

For hell demands a sacrifice!

You, boy! You with your camera!

Filming, judging, offering nothing.

Stealing souls one frame at a time!

You wait here.

Oh, god, please! Christ, no!

- May I help you?

- Ls Julia here?

Julia who?

I know she's here.

Are we gonna play this game?

Grady.

- A friend of yours?

- Yeah.

Call me if you need me.

Jesus Christ. What happened to you?

I've been trying to call you

for six goddamn hours.

You're a writer.

Write me a list of your friends.

Not your sources, or contacts,

but your friends.

I bet you it's a really short one.

Am I even on it?

You're the last one.

- How did you find me?

- Welcome to the 21st century.

- I'm a cop and you're an open book.

- I'd make an awful criminal.

Yeah. Well, you'd make

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