"Get out," the farmer snapped at everybody. "There is a break in the weather and you can all go and pee outside for a change."
Not so much as an "if you feel like it." Or "if you wouldn't mind."
Everyone shambled outside except Brandy who didn't feel like it. The farmer was not in a mood.
"Fine," snapped the farmer, and Brandy got booted into the fat girl pasture.
Not so much as a "right this way." Or a "thank you for coming." No, not today.
"What does it mean, 'a break in the weather?' " asked Pebbles as we stood under a tree observing the downpour burbling in sheets and rivers all around us. The winter ducks quacked distantly from Lost Beaver Lake down the hill.
"It means the weather is broken," explained Abby. "Like the roof on the buck shed."
"Where the rain comes in?" asked Pebbles.
"Exactly," said Abby, pointedly.
Pinky began to bawl bitterly. She was standing directly under the downpour, experiencing the break in the weather up close and personal, and the Nubian part of her brain was filling with sadness, a great lake of sadness that could only be expressed through bitter bawling.
"BWAA!" she called.
"BWAA!" she responded, in fierce agreement with herself.
That was today.
