There’s a horrible man that lives in my town.

I never saw him until today.

He wore a pink golf shirt and khaki colored shorts with sandals.  His white hair was cropped close and his tanned skin showed his age to be in the mid-60’s.  His strong body was filled with determination as he pushed a dolly that was loaded with a crate wrapped in black trash bags.

There’s a horrible man that lives in my town.

He walked fast; his stride was purposeful and his clear eyes met mine.  I smiled in greeting and said Hello as my dogs casually sniffed the tall grasses that lined the bike path.  His mouth turned up at the corners but the lines around his eyes never shifted as he strode past.

The smell of skunk wafted to my nostrils as he got further and further away.  It was sweet and garlicky, pungent and overwhelming.  A skunk was in the cage and he was taking it to open space to release it away from the houses that lined the greenbelt near the pond around which I was walking.

There’s a horrible man that lives in my town.

My dogs were not in a hurry to finish their walk on this warm morning; I waited while they sniffed the luscious scents that only canines can truly enjoy.  My eyes followed the man who walked with such purpose.

He left the bike path and instead of walking to the open space he headed toward the dock of the pond.  The water is covered with algae at this time of year.  No kids fished from the railing; they’re all in school these days.

He lifted the cage from the dolly, removed one of the plastic bags that covered the lower half of the cage and in a fluid motion, lowered the cage into the water while holding on to the long wire attached to the end.

The remaining plastic bag ballooned as water entered it, and the cage settled just below the surface.

There’s a horrible man that lives in my town.

I left the path without doing a single thing to save the innocent creature that died today.  I didn’t have a phone to call Animal Control.  I didn’t have voice to call out.  No one else witnessed the drowning death.

I was frightened.  A person that drowns an animal is not reasonable.  Pleas for the skunk’s release would fall on deaf ears, if I were even in time to get the cage out of the water.  The skunk’s fate was sealed as soon as it was in that cage.

I kept myself safe from certain verbal abuse and quickly walked home.  Inside the safety of my house I locked the door and cried.

There’s a horrible man that lives in my town.