Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [221]

I thought I would throw up. My belly hurt more and more until I felt skewered through the middle. I leaned on my bike with my left arm. With my right hand, I drew the Smith & Wesson, aimed, and shot the beautiful dog through its head. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 221

Note

The narration splits the body into parts to keep the act at arm’s length — belly, left arm on the bike, right hand with the gun — and the choice of ‘the beautiful dog’ at the exact moment of killing, rather than ‘the dog’ or ‘it,’ forces the shooter’s tenderness and her action into one clause with no connective to soften it. ‘Skewered through the middle’ is the one figurative flourish, and it sits uneasily against the flat, procedural verbs (drew, aimed, shot) that follow.