Page 9 - FINAL DESTINATION

FINAL DESTINATION
where she used to play, empty the urn he carried in the box, and be done with this final obligation.
He picked his way carefully, trying to avoid cow pies and muddy spots. About halfway across the field he got the impres- sion he was not alone. Looking back, he saw that the cow was following him. Perhaps heeding some sort of herd mentality or maybe just a lack of anything better to do, the rest of the cows meandered in his direction as well.
"Listen, I don't have anything for you," he said to her. She moved closer to sniff at the box. "No, she was bitter when she was alive, and you certainly don't want a piece of her now." Neil walked on, occasionally glancing back to see the cows still following him.
As he got closer, he could make out the shape of some struc- ture hidden by the tangled growth. What must have once been manicured shrubs had grown out of control, snarling with young trees to screen the old building from the road. Through the trees, he could see a pitched roofline that listed to one side, and, as he neared, the broken pains of the second-story windows. He had found the house.
When he reached the thicket it was enclosed by another fence. This one with a "No Trespassing" signs on it. Odd, he thought, that there would be one on this inner fence but not the outer one. Older and rustier than the one by the road, it was strung from smaller metal poles that had been driven into the ground. Unlike the sturdy wooden posts of the other fence, there was no way they would hold his weight if he tried to climb over. With no gate in sight, he resolved to climb through this one.
Again, he slid the box under the lowest strand of wire. The space between the ground and this strand was wider than the gap of the other wires. For a moment he considered going under it, but the image of himself crawling on the ground in a cow pasture convinced him to go through.
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