Interview with artist Patrick Byers by Max Michaels
Thirty three year old artist Patrick Byers, based in New Brunswick, Canada, contacted us to feature his art and we couldn't be happier to do it! His surreal photographic manipulations are haunting and beautiful. We hit him with a little Q&A for MOVEMENT and have linked his gallery at the end of it. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Do you use original photos or do you mainly use stock photos?
"I shoot my own stock images, I took photgraphy for two and a half years. I have some in the gallery."
How long have you been working in this media/style?
"I have been working in this type of style for around 2 to 3 years off and on, while doing other art projects."
How is the arts scene in New Brunswick, Canada?
"The art scene it pretty slow here, conservative city, i did work in advertising for over two years but it was a very black and white world."
Have you had any gallery shows?
"I will be having two gallery showings coming up , one at the University of New Brunswick art center next January, and one here in Saint John sometime after October at the Saint John Arts Center."
Do you sell your work any where other than Deviant?
"I haven't sold any pieces yet. I have been working on an oil rig for the past two years, but i have free time now and am heading into the art field head strong, (working on a web site to sell my work, everything form photography to sculpting)."
Wow, an oil rig, eh. What was that like?
"Yes I worked on two of them as a industrial painter/Grinder, Yes an ocean rig ,but they were docked , they are like little citys, one was the Erik Rude and the other was the Glomar Grand Banks there are also land rigs up north on the pipe line. The rigs are usally filled with rugged people it was a strange place for an artist to be, but you adapt, its kind of like a moderen day pirate ship. (laughs)
I love all things industrial, just there sheer power, and complexity of machines. It devanlty reminds me of something out of the heavy metal comix magizine."
Dark and broody imagery. Where does that come from?
"Not sure where the darkenss in my imagery comes from, maybe deep within where I store all my problems, I save them up for my art I guess. (laughs) That sounds about right."
There is a good amount of angelic imagery, are you very religious?
"No, I'm not religious at all. But some times I wish I belevied."
Do you use straight photographic images to work from or are some parts of the images 3-d renderings?
"All my manipulations are done with photos. But I do have some 3d stills in that gallery also."
   
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In 1999, the U.K.’s Channel 4 broadcast the first series of Spaced, a sitcom about slacker twentysomethings in North London that garnered critical acclaim, several awards, and an international cult following. The director of the show was Edgar Wright, its co-writer and star was Simon Pegg, and its producer was Nira Park. One notable episode featured Simon’s character trapped in the game “Resident Evil 2” and fighting off zombies. Simon and Edgar enjoyed doing the episode so much that they hit on the idea of making a full-length zombie feature film. Edgar enthuses, “We’re both massive fans of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead [1978]. One sequence in the episode had Simon fighting off zombies with a shotgun. During filming, we looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, we should really do something like this!’ What resulted from that epifany is the hilarious romp that MOVEMENT considers to be hands down the best film of 2004...
shaunofthedead interview by max michaels
It was a smash hit in the U.K., it barely made a blip on the big screen scene in the States, but Shaun of the Dead, a “rom zom com” (romantic zombie comedy), is catching an incredible buzz now on DVD. Mark our words, this will be a huge cult classic and a nessessary staple for any self respecting Zombie movie fans collection. The story follows the bloody funny adventures of underachiever Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his best mate Ed (Nick Frost) as they cope with a zombie invasion of North London and attempt to rescue Shaun’s girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) and his Mum, Barbara (Penelope Wilton).
Co writer and star of the film Simon Pegg took some time from his very busy schedule to speak with us about his career and how Shaun of the Dead became his own labor of love...
Tell me, how did you begin as a comedian?
I was at university sort of studying drama, film and television. I was kind of just a little bit disillusioned with the notion of becoming an actor really because it just seemed to me that you would kind of be at the whim of casting directors and that sort of ebb and flow of work.. I kind of wanted to do something that I was a little bit more in control of and I’d always had an interest in stand-up comedy since I was very small. So, I kind of went down that route anyway and through being a stand-up managed to get back into acting and being a little more autonomous by sort of writing my own material and generating my own work. That’s kind of how it happened.
Who are some of your favorite comedians?
God, I’ve got loads of favorite comedians. I’m a big fan of Bill Hicks, I guess on that side of the pond. People here, old acts like Morecambe and Wise and current acts like Bill Bailey. God it’s a hard question, it’s like walking into a music shop and trying to remember what kind of music you like.
How did your first comedy appearance go and where was it at?
I was at university at the time. I started off doing review shows at university and then branched into actually performing at the comedy clubs that were around Bristol, England at the time. Then I sort of went to London and met my agent. She was booking a comedy club at that time and she was just starting out as an agent. She said if you move to London, I’ll take care of you and that’s what happened.
When did you get into the acting part of it?
I’ve always been interested in acting and I kind of studied acting at university and stuff. But I guess at that point sort of in the Mid-Nineties the TV companies in the UK were sort of mining the stand-up community for people to come up with new ideas because there was a slight death of sitcom and good comedy. So, they were like looking to the stand-up circuit for people to come up with dramatic ideas. I kind of got approached to do something with a friend of mine, called Jessica, who I’d worked with and we came up with this show, Spaced. I’d also worked on a couple of comedy shows before that as well. So, it was that kind of that sort of being in the right place at the right time kind of deal.
So, what was Spaced about?
It was basically a flat share sitcom but it was done in a very unconventional fashion. It was filmed single camera and there was no live audience. It was shot more like a film really. That’s how I met Edgar, who directed Shaun of the Dead, because he’d directed something I’d been in previously and I’d really been impressed with the way he worked. When it cam e to do Spaced we, Jessica and myself, both asked for Edgar to direct it because we figured he could definitely get the kind of visual style we wanted up on the screen.
How did you guys end up co-writing that, you and Edgar? What was the writing process like for you guys like writing Shaun of the Dead?
We were working on Spaced and Edgar and myself obviously became friends while we were making Spaced, we didn’t know each other to well before hand. We both realized we had a shared interest in genre films and horror and what have you. We’d shot our sequence in Spaced where my character Tim had been playing the game Resident Evil for twelve hours straight and had started to hallucinate that he was in the game, so we shot this sort of zombie sequence and had such fun doing it that we got to the end of the day and thought wow wouldn’t it be great if we could actually make a zombie movie. So, that was how the gem of the idea started. After the second season of Spaced finished, we started to think about the actual possibility of making the zombie movie. Then we thought about how we can make it different - we don’t just want to make a kind of run of the mill zombie movie, George Romero had done that brilliantly already and it didn’t really need doing again. So we figured, let’s try and put a spin on it. So, that’s how we came up with the idea of doing this sort of romantic zombie comedy.
Is this your first co-writing for a big screen theatrical film?
Yeah, really, it’s definitely my first. I’ve done script polishes on things but this is the first big screen play that I’ve written.
You’re looking forward to a whole bunch more I’m sure.
Yeah, absolutely!
Do you have a particular part of this movie or a particular part of the shoot that you did that you think was the most fun, the most entertaining to do?
I think, it’s difficult because I mean the whole thing was an enormous amount of fun overall. I look back on it now and we were making a zombie movie. It was great but the actual process wasn’t easy once we got into production . We had a good budget for a low budget film, it was 4 million pounds. So, it was pretty good for what we were trying to do but we were still up against difficulty. It was still very ambitious and in actual fact it was very hard. There were some pretty difficult days. You know, we were always up against time and money was always against us. You know it was actually quite arduous, but having said that, I really loved shooting the stuff. As soon as we got into the big crowd scenes with the zombies, that was really good fun. A lot of the special effects, I loved shooting the scene in the back garden with Nick. I suppose that was one of my favorite times.
That actually goes to one of my questions - what record or cd in your collection right now; do you have that you wouldn’t throw at a zombie?
Oh, I think I’ve narrowed it down. I’d just throw my iPod at a zombie now. It would be absolutely everything I own and I just couldn’t do that. I don’t know, I guess if you’re not a vinyl purest then you are pretty much just quids in now because nobody plays vinyl anymore unless you’re a dj. I don’t know. I don’t think cds are that effective.
Who’s your favorite band? Who do you like out there?
I’m a big fan. I’m a big music listener. I’ve got quite a musical family. So, I always find it quite hard to answer those kinds of questions because I have quite a large collection of music. My iPod’s almost full now and it’s one of those 40 gig ones. So, I think it would be difficult to distinguish. I’m generally kind of along the side of good music and I think deep down we know what that is as grown ups. You know, worthy stuff . Stuff that’s actually got a bit of thought and art to it.
And you and Nick actually were roommates at one point?
Yeah, we were roommates for about six years. We shared a flat, a couple of flats actually, and lived very much like Shaun and Ed for a little awhile. I mean, I don’t know which one was which to be honest. It’s not like I was Shaun and Nick was Ed, we’re probably both Ed actually. Nick’s my best friend. I would be lying if I said that the chemistry that people were sort of talking about up on screen was entirely artificial. It’s all true. We’re just good mates.
What’s your favorite zombie film other than, I would say, Dawn of the Dead of course?
I think I would say, other than the Dawn of the Dead because the original Dawn of the Dead is with out doubt the best, I love it. I’m a huge fan of that movie. I think I would probably have to say, what’s the favorite outside the Romero cannon, because obviously once you tick off Dawn, and then I’d say it was Night, and then it was Day. So, I suppose my favorite non-Romero zombie film would probably have to be a great Japanese one called Wild Zero and it features this band called Guitar-Wolf. It’s absolutely hilarious. Maybe Lucio Fulciâ’s, the Beyond. That’s a bit of a classic.
Has the Romero camp said anything to you or had any contact with you about Shaun of the Dead?
Oh yeah, we’re in constant contact with George because he apparently proudly wears his Shaun of the Dead badge on the set of Land of the Dead everyday at the moment. I think everybody on the set of Land of the Dead has got a badge or a hat. He really loves the movie. We sent him a copy as soon as we got it finished. We sent it over to Florida actually, he watched it in Florida. We spent a very tense couple of hours waiting for him to give us the nod to call him and we did. He absolutely loved it, which is great because there is no reason why he shouldn’t because it is very, very referential. It’s a love letter to him really, those no reason why he shouldn’t be very flattered with that. We’re so happy of that and we’ve become very good friends with Greg Nicotero at KNB Efx, the guy that is doing the effects for Land of the Dead and who was in Day of the Dead. Ken Foree as well, who was in the original Dawn of the Dead who was the lead actor, we’ve become friends with. So, we’ve got very healthy links with the Romero camp and we’re absolutely stoked about it!
Have you seen the remake of Dawn of the Dead?
I have yes because it came out two weeks before Shaun of the Dead did here in the UK. We’re both under the Universal banner. Universal’s only stipulation was that Dawn come out first, which we were fine with because we ended up looking like the most speedy reaction to a mainstream release in the history of cinema. When in actual fact, we didn’t find out about the remake of Dawn of the Dead until a year after we started writing Shaun and we were pretty worried about it at first. I thought the first fifteen minutes in particular were extraordinary but I think we were both, Zack Snyder and ourselves, were looking at different ideas. It’s a completely different take on the zombie. I mean he kind of updated them for the 21st century, obviously fed them a lot of coffee so they are running around all over the place. We kind of kept to the classic Romero very slow, very ineffectual, slightly sympathetic zombies. Which I kind of think is more interesting just because there’s more complexity there, more sort of contradiction and more chance to characterize them as well as opposed to them being this sort of snarling Tasmanian devils. They become ex-people and that’s always a little bit more affecting I think.
I’m surprised at how many people say that 28 Days is widely considered a zombie movie for some reason, but I think it’s a virus. They didn’t die.
No, exactly. Alex Garland, whose a friend of ours too, who wrote 28 Days Later he never meant for the film to be a zombie film. I think it wears its inspirations on its sleeve very much. It’s very much a tribute to Romero’s films and authors like John Wyndham and films like Omega Men. It’s very much in the tradition of those things, but it’s not a zombie movie.
For some reason people tend to widely consider it that, believe it to be and I think they might have taken something off of that for the new Dawn of the Dead.
That’s what it seemed like to me, it seemed like the makers of Dawn of the Dead had kind of seen 28 Days and thought oh ok let’s do it that way. I’m glad in a way. I’m glad they did it that way because it meant that we were one of the only films flying the slow zombie banner. It’s lead to all these hilarious debates about fast zombies. Not for me, you can’t have a fast zombie. A fast zombie immediately negates the very meaning of the word zombie. It’s like saying, which do you prefer hot or cold ice. There’s no debate for me.
How did Shaun of the Dead do over in England or in Europe?
Phenomenally, we were very, very lucky. Not just from the box office, which was really good, but then from the DVD sales which have been just staggering. It’s really nice for it to do well on its home ground because of all the movie goers in the world, British people are the most suspicious and wary of British films because we’re so used to being disappointed by our own output. It was nice that the public got behind it and supported it in the way they did.
So it’s already out on DVD and that’s been selling really well over there already?
It’s sold. I think it took Star Wars to knock off us the number one spot. Fair enough. We out sold everything , even Passion of Christ and everything that was out at the time.
Does it contain any special features, extending things, bloopers?
Yeah, I think that’s one of the reasons it sold so well because it does have like a good hour and a half worth of extra material on it. There’s lots of behind the scenes footage. We’ve got sort of special effects comparisons. We made these special comic strip cartoons that sort of flesh out some of the questions you might have asked about what happens. On the DVD, it tells you where Shaun went when he kind of distracted the zombies. It tells you what happened to Diane when she left the pub with the leg of her boyfriend and it tells you how Ed got from the pub into the shed at the end of the film. It’s all done in a really nicely done sort of comic book format. So, there’s absolutely tons on there for film fans and for DVD fans alike.
It doesn’t seem to be in a very wide release over here in the States right now. I think in the city I’m in, it’s only in like one theatre.
It’s only on 607 screens, which they kind of decided to do on a sort of small scale word of mouth release. Obviously, Focus and Rogue, who are distributing it, know how to go about there business because they’ve obviously done lots before. What was great was that, despite the fact, I think we got to number four in the top ten even though we were only on 607 screens. When you looked at everything else in the top ten, everything was on over 1,500 and we were only on at 607. We were still at number four, which meant that the cinemas we were running were absolutely full, which is great.
Did you have any input into the promotional items? They sent us the mini cricket bats.
The American promotional items were actually better than the British ones. They came up with some nice. We were able to keep an eye on it but a lot of it was just soft of initiative from Focus, which is great.
Has anybody said anything about or even thought about maybe a sequel to this?
We’re just into writing the next film now, but it’s not going to be a sequel to Shaun of the Dead. I think we’re going to try and move and do something else. Sequels, unless you’re actually intending on creating an on-going story, are always just cash-ins really and I think they sometimes spoil the first film. Shaun of the Dead is very much a circular story. It’s a self-contained tale. If there was a sequel, then when you went back and watched the first one again you’d sit there thinking this is all very well, he’s getting out of this great but he’s gonna have another one. It doesn’t satisfactorily end when there is a sequel, so I think that we kind of want to try and resist doing a sequel to Shaun of the Dead. Where else could you go? We’ve said all that we wanted to say with this one.
So what is next for you? What are you working on now?
At the moment we’re working on a police-based thing. We’re looking to do something with the British action film. There’s really not such a thing as the British action movie and that’s we kind of want to do. In the same that with Shaun of the Dead we took what was essentially an American genre and made it very British. We want to do the same sort of thing with a cop action flick. The British policeman is a very unfashionable, uncool kind of figure and we thought it would be quite funny to try and change that.
Trying to make the cops cool, huh?
One of the most common sorts of exports from the British cinema at the moment is the kind of gangster film. You know the sort of cool, London company gangsters. It’s a bit much. We think, well let’s be really uncool and try to make the cops cool because that’s a challenge. We’re just researching that at the moment.
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SHAUN OF THE DEAD VS. RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE
by TAISIR
Two zombie movies that are as different as Night and Dawn.
Here's a list of similarities and differences between Shaun of the Dead and Resident Evil: Apocalypse for you to chew on:
A. Both main characters are in a bind caused by what I'll call personal stress with job and general situation based on individual life choices.
B. Both are part zombie themselves, Shaun (Simon Pegg) in his loss of attention and Alice (Milla Jovovich) through alteration of her genes by the Umbrella Corporation.
C. Shaun takes on the zombies with a cricket bat and his LP vinyl collection while Alice utilizes an arsenal, a motorcycle, martial arts moves and whatever else is handy.
D. Both characters use their experience with zombies to turn their lives around and take control of their destinies.
E. Scary? Both have a few moments that make the audience jump.
So which is better? I happen to like both but SOTD wins slimy zombie hands down. Though RE:A is a fairly decent action flick with more attention to detail than the first one, SOTD is a much more well rounded film. It's great for those weirdos that don't even like zombie movies. The characters are well known neighbor-next-door types that the audience can relate well with. Shaun has problems with his stepdad, girlfriend, her friends and he loves his mum like every good boy should. I even had some teary eyed moments when I had gone into the theater with expectations of just laughing my ass off. A nice surprise. It also has a fantastic ending for a zombie movie. Maybe even a realistic one. This film also successfully pokes fun at society in a subtle and intelligent way, and the zombies look great for a low budget film. There are some really good gory moments thrown in also. Pretty good for a zombie flick, eh?
On the other apendage, RE:A just wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. The CG was definately better than the first and many of the sets were lifesize replicas of scenery in the games. The dogs were a million times better than the first movie. Milla Jovovich rocked. So what's the problem? There were just too many inconsistencies and not enough lickers. Lickers are the scariest part of the game. When I'm playing and I hear that dripping sound combined with a slight hissing noise, I drop the controller and run. RE:A only features them in one part in a church where everybody is hiding out and Alice magically knows to go save them. I was also disturbed by the worst scene in the movie, the graveyard scene. I guess the virus got into the water system and reanimated the long-since-buried; and why couldn't Alice tell they were there but could tell to crash through a church window? I think my number one problem with this flick was that it was more of an action movie than a horror movie. I'm an action fan too but I just kept feeling that Alice might as well have been fighting cowboys or foreign soldiers.
Both films are now available on DVD
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NICK CASSAVETES TO DIRECT NEW LINE CINEMA AND MARVEL’S
IRON MAN
New Line Cinema and Marvel Studios, a division of leading global entertainment company Marvel Enterprises have signed Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, John Q) to direct the highly-anticipated big screen adaptation of Iron Man, based on the legendary Marvel Super Hero. The film is scheduled to be a 2006 tentpole release.
The project, which is being produced by Marvel Studios’ CEO Avi Arad (Spider-Man, X-Men) and Angry Films’ Don Murphy, is based on a script by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and David Hayter. The studios will begin casting immediately.
"This is an ideal situation because Nick is a tremendous talent with a passion for the material, and we have had such incredible success working with both him and Marvel in the past," said New Line production president Toby Emmerich. "Teaming up again to launch a franchise as promising as Iron Man is very exciting."
Arad added, "Being able to work with such an acclaimed writer/director as Nick Cassavettes to bring one of our pre-eminent Super Hero franchises to the big screen is really special. Nick grew up reading Iron Man and personally loves the character. He shares our vision of how to bring Iron Man to life in a way that will appeal to a mass audience as well as the core Super Hero fan base. This deal with Nick marks the perfect way to launch our second big Marvel franchise with New Line, a studio that we have enjoyed a great relationship with in building the Blade character into a Hollywood heavyweight."
Based on the long-running Marvel comic book series, Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark, the enigmatic heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune. A driven inventor and executive who seems to have it all, Tony is haunted by his dark side. Though he commands his empire by day, by night he secretly becomes Iron Man, the living embodiment of decades of defense spending and innovation. Strapping on billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armor and weaponry each night to fight crime, terrorism and corporate espionage, Tony begins to crack under the strain of his fractured lifestyle and must ultimately confront the one enemy he can never beat - himself.
Iron Man marks the continuation of New Line’s successful relationship with Marvel, which was initiated with the studio’s hit adaptation of Blade in 1998. New Line built on the initial film’s success with the release of Blade II in 2002, and released the third installment of the franchise, Blade: Trinity, on Dec. 8.
Emmerich is overseeing Iron Man for New Line along with the studio’s senior vp production Stokely Chaffin, vp George Waud and creative executive Jeff Katz. Spearheading the production for Marvel Studios are Kevin Feige and Ari Arad.
Cassavetes’ relationship with New Line has also proved to be a profitable one in recent years. His last directorial effort, The Notebook, was one of this summer’s biggest hits at the box office. He also directed the 2002 hit film John Q for the studio and is currently in production on the drama Alpha Dog, which features an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone and Emile Hirsch.
Marvel has an impressive track record when it comes to translating its renowned Super Heroes to the big screen with such blockbusters as Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, X-Men, X-Men 2, Daredevil, and The Hulk. The company is also currently in production on the much buzzed about adaptation of Fantastic Four, which hits theaters July 1, 2005.
________________________________________________________________ REEL LIFE UPDATE:
Star of tv and film Michael Pitt , most recently seen in The Village, is currently working on his own music project and is attached to several film projects including Tom DiCillo's "Delirious" (also starring Steve Buscemi) looking for a possible December Shoot date and "The Hawk is Dying" with Paul Giamatti that will probably be shooting in the fall down south. |
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Pa's Boys
By Daniel Bearl
Gunshots and jubilant hoots and hollars filled the air as Pa's boys rounded up the last of the Groudy clan in the yard. The huddled mass of men, bloodied and wounded, stood or knelt as they were able with downcast eyes as Pa's boy's circled them taunting and jeering.
Pa stood back, rifle resting across his folded arms, watching the scene unfold with a grim expression on his face. Timothy, the youngest of Pa's brood, ran up to stand beside his father and watched his older brothers.
"Why'd ya make me hang back, Pa?" he asked sullenly.
Pa kept watching the boys in the yard.
"Runt, don' botha me with silly questions," he grumbled.
Timothy frowned and turned back to the celebration that was gaining momentum in the yard.
The young men circled their defeated foes almost ceremoniously, frequently firing their rifles into the sky. The men laughed and hurled insults at the defeated, huddled mass. Alex, one of Pa's oldest, strutted up with his thumbs hooked into his belt loops. A six-shooter hung loosely from his side. Sweat stained his shirt and matted his hair as a lingering tribute to the hard-won victory.
"Fine day, wouldn't ya say, Pa?" he commented listlessly with a smug half-smile. "Finally showed them Groudy boys what's for."
Pa grunted, seemingly engrossed in his clan's revelry.
A warm breeze picked up, gently swaying the gray beards of Spanish Moss that hung from the great oaks encircling the yard. Timothy coughed lightly as a gust of wind blew sand in his face.
Alex looked down and said: "My, Runt, I didn't even see you there. Whatcha think o' watchin' yo' brothers?"
Timothy looked up at Alex.
"I wanted ta scrap it out with ya, but Pa held me back."
Alex laughed, but Pa scowled with annoyance.
"Boy, make yo'self useful and get in that house and help your ma and sisters look fo' some food," he growled.
Timothy looked up at Pa angrily.
"Best do as Pa says," Alex drawled out with a smile.
Timothy turned angrily and started walking to the house. Alex's carefree laughter lingered behind him.
He wound his way through the patchy, unkempt grass of the yard, hopping from stone to stone along the dusty path that found its way to the looming front porch. Timothy looked up at the sagging columns whose peeling paint betrayed their age. He climbed the stone steps onto the porch and walked to the wide front double door, carefully avoiding a gaping hole where the wooden porch had rotted away.
The doors, made of heavy oak, were cast aside, ripped from their hinges. Their intricate glass windowing was shattered and glittering shards littered the threshold. The main hallway of the house was busy with women. They hurriedly carried preserved foodstuff out of the kitchen area and packed it into brown bundles which they stacked up beside the front door.
Timothy ducked into a side room and softly closed the door behind him.
The room was decorated with animal hides and in the center stood a large billiard table. Timothy idled up to the table and picked up a broken cue. Splattered blood, already almost dry, speckled the polished wood. A man, possibly in his early 20s, lay motionless in the corner.
Timothy surveyed the room, trying to avoid looking at the dead young man. The ceilings were high and set with rusting, stamped tin tiles. Dusty wallpaper, which might have at one time been green, peeled away from the walls. A broad window gave a view into the surrounding forest.
Outside, giant oak trees stood like monoliths, their ancient limbs sagging to the ground. A hundred yards from the house stood a low, rusted iron fence enclosing a handful of moss-covered headstones.
A noise sounded behind Timothy, and he turned abruptly, startled.
There, peering out of a side door that led to a staircase, was a wide-eyed boy about Timothy's age. The boy stood motionless, frozen with one hand resting on the door handle, jaw slackened. The two boys stared at each other in terrified silence, waiting for the other to move. The boy's hand tightened on the doorknob.
"You get outta my house!" he screamed suddenly and lunged at Timothy.
Betraying only a fraction of a second to surprise, Timothy snarled and leapt at the boy. The two collided, grappled one another and fell to the floor. They wrestled on the floor, arms wrapped around each other in a desperate, ruthless embrace. Timothy bit down hard on the boy's shoulder eliciting a cry of pain. The boy boxed Timothy hard in the ear in retaliation. Timothy rolled off the boy, grasping his ear as the boy stood up. He loomed over Timothy, a dark silhouette against the room's broad window. The boy reached down to grab Timothy's legs, but Timothy's foot darted up and connected sharply with the boy's groin. The boy doubled over and fell back, striking his head on the billiard table. He staggered to a sitting position, dazed from the blow.
Timothy jumped to his feet and realized he still held the broken billiard cue in his hand. With a sudden and blinding rush of adrenaline, Timothy swung the wooden rod, striking the boy across the temple. The boy whimpered and tried to back into the table as Timothy swung again, striking the boy on the forehead. A small tickle of blood began to pour down the boy's face from where the skin had torn there.
Timothy struck again and again at the boy's face as the boy tried feebly to defend himself with his hands. The boy began sobbing loudly, pleading for an end to the barrage of blows.
Timothy took a step back and felt something hard against his foot. He glanced down and saw a revolver laying at his feet, a few inches from the limp hand of the dead man slumped in the corner. Keeping his eyes on the whimpering boy, Timothy knelt and picked up the gun and leveled it at the boy's head.
The boy fell silent and started at the gun for a minute before his gaze drifted to the side.
"I found ma daddy," the boy whispered. Blood spattered from his mouth as he talked. His left eye had swollen shut.
"He tol' me 'Son, stay in this here closet until the fightin's over,'" he said softly, still half dazed. "So, I stayed in there until I didn't hear no fightin' no more. And when I came out, there was my daddy on the floor, blood flowin' from his head like a red river. But I cain't find ma brothers. I came down lookin' for 'em. Maybe you seen 'em? They's usually out bringin' in the horses 'bout this time."
Timothy cocked the hammer. The gun shook as he strained to steady its weight.
"Ma daddy's dead," the boy croaked as he closed his eyes. A single, hot tear swelled from the his eye, turning pink as it mingled with the blood on his face.
Timothy hesitated. He stared at the boy unsure of what to do next. He gently applied pressure to the trigger, trying to will himself to pull it. He thought of his brothers outside, rounding up the Groudy boys, corralling them out to the woods. This was feud. The Groudy clan had to be eliminated. That's what Pa had said. It was the only way to end it. Timothy took a deep breath, steeling himself to be a faithful son.
The crack of a gunshot exploded the silence and Timothy whirled to face the door leading into the main hallway. Pa stood there, rifle leveled. Smoke rose in a fluid ribbon toward the ceiling from its barrel. Timothy turned back to face the young boy. He lay crumpled on the floor, a hole piercing his forehead. The leg of the billiard table dripped with a sticky, lumpy mixture of blood and brain tissue.
Timothy turned back to face Pa, his face red with anger.
"He was mine!" Timothy shouted, his eyes beginning to burn with tears. "Why'd ya hafta go and shoot 'im?"
Pa looked down at Timothy and, for the first time in his life, Timothy thought he saw a shimmer of sadness in that hard, grim face.
"You ain't old enough to kill yet," Pa said hoarsely. "Put that gun down and come outside with me, son."
Timothy shakily set the gun on the floor and followed Pa out onto the porch.
Pa sat down on the top step and motioned for Timothy to sit beside him.
"You don' remember the time before," Pa said gravely, "when we didn' hafta fight fer nothin' and ever'thing was right with the world."
Timothy stared out into the yard sullenly, his eyes red and wet.
"Your brothers, they think this is all fun," Pa whispered sadly. "I don' want you growin' up like that. I want you to remember that we do this because we hafta, not because we wanna. You the future, boy. I need you to be above all that."
Pa hesitated and said almost inaudibly, "My God, I raised a pack o' monsters."
Timothy said nothing as he watched the moss sway in the trees. Alex bounded up to the two enthusiastically from the yard.
"We done takin' care o' all the Groudy boys, Pa," he beamed. "What you figure we oughta do now?"
Pa rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"I reckon we oughta pack up what we can and get movin'," Pa said. "It'll be dark in a couple o' hours and I wanna be as far away from here as possible when we set camp."
Alex nodded and ran off, shouting orders to his kin. Pa stood and placed a hand on top of Timothy's ruffled hair.
"Jes' remember, son," he said softly. "It won' be like this fo'ever. Jes' you wait, we'll find a place we can settle and live like peaceful folk. Maybe start a farm. And I swear you'll never hafta raise a hand in anger again."
Pa made his way back into the house, leaving Timothy alone on the step. The shouts of his brothers and the sounds of food being loaded into the wagons seemed as remote to him as the buzzing of the cicada flies deep in the forest.
A warm breeze caressed Timothy's face, drying his moist eyes, and he felt a cold hardness begin to settle within him. He stared sightless into the forest, numb, silent and struggling to breathe.
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