David

“Fucking deer.” David muttered to himself. For as long as he could remember there had been a small group of deer bedding down somewhere in northern forty of his land. Quite handy come black powder season but every couple of years one of them would die on his property for whatever reason. This one had died somewhere to the southwest of his house, probably in the grove, enabling the southeasterly winds to carry the stench of decay right into the open window of his bedroom. David hastily dressed and headed out to find the corpse, stopping to grab a gas can from his shed. David opened the door to his house again and called for Buck, Buck's nose would lead him to the deer more quickly than his own woefully less sensitive human nose. Not that he needed Buck, the stench only became stronger the further into his small chunk of woodland David walked. The Maples were still the green of late summer and their strong scent was normally intoxicating. The smell of decay was overpowering the maples this morning though, at least until David could find that damn deer and begin it's cremation. He was close now, the smell was so strong he could almost taste the decay and it was making vomit seem reasonable. Buck let out a bark and a David shifted toward his Springer companion. It became,e obvious that the stench emanated from something other than a deer as soon as David saw the tattered old overalls peeking through the shallow undergrowth. It was Marvin, surrounded by a few empty Schlitz cans. He had come to the grove to sit and drink away from his wife as he sometimes did. Dave never cared as long as he cleaned up after himself.. “Must've been a heart attack or stroke.” David uttered to himself as Buck sniffed cautiously around the body. Then David wondered why Marvin's wife never reported him missing.