Frank and Earnest - Day 3

Earnest broke the silence.

“What is your name, son?”

“Tommie.”

“Tommie, I’m Ernie and this is Frank.”

Tommie nodded to both.

Frank tried to speak calmly, but his voice quivered a bit.

“Boy, put that pistol away.”

Tommie ignored the order. He locked eyes with Earnest and began his series of questions.

“I heard y’all talking. I didn’t understand some of it, but from what I could tell, you were talking about if we came from monkeys or not, right?”

Both preachers nodded and waited.

Tommie raised the pistol and pointed it directly at Frank.

“You say no, right?”

Frank nodded.

The pistol moved over to Earnest.

“And you say yes, right?”

“No actually, I just said we might. I don’t know for sure.”

“But you think we did, don’t you?”

“Well, yes. If you put a gun to may head …” Earnest realized that he should not have used that old phrase at this particular moment. Tommie didn’t seem to notice.

Tommy let the gun point off to the side as he seem to drift off to deep thought.

Frank broke in.

“Son, put the gun away before someone gets hurt.”

The shot rang out before Frank’s last word drifted away. It wasn’t a blast like from a shotgun, but more of a crisp bang, like two pieces of wood slapped together. Frank’s paper lunch bag exploded, sending plastic and brown paper out in all directions. The slug buried itself in a large oak on the far side of the town square.

Both ministers jumped back at the noise and the violence of the bag exploding. Tommy lowered the gun and remained silent.


Sirens began to be heard in the background.