In the Dark and the Wet

At first, Ida thought the child was crying, slouched on her knees in the road, covered by an oversized raincoat.  He could see her shoulders shuddering, gleaming wet in the streetlamp's glow.  There was a dark lump on the road before her, visible as a gap in the yellow lines.  Had someone run over her dog?

He slowed when he heard her chanting.

When he saw her hands rise to her mouth, he stopped.  With a grunt and a tearing sound, she began to chew.

By the time he realized it wasn't a raincoat at all, it was too late.

Prayer Upon Crossing the Highway

Though I walk now among the Thin Branches, drawing near to the Shadow That Roars, I shall not fear, for You, Lord, are with me. Be thou a tail to my soul, O Gatherer, who caches the hoard that never empties. I scent the hot and sticky sweetness of the Shadow, baking black and yellow beneath the heat of the sun. The bones of my brothers lie at the edges. One sad corpse lies, headless and disfigured, upon the yellow lines.

The air chokes me. The surface is hot beneath my feet. I must cross now.

O Gatherer! Preserve me!