Frickin' Project Graduation

Mercy Chapter 7

Previous Chapter: Except When Crisis Prevents

It took Dave a couple of weeks to decide, but when he finally went to sign his brand-new lease on a July morning, he found Perry outside, host to some unwelcome visitors. A flock of migrating birds had settled into the tiny patch of gravel by the front door of the mill. Their pink plastic bodies rubbed hollowly against each other as Perry pulled them up out of the ground, clasping them in his meaty hand like a flamingo bouquet.

Pencil Sketch by Katie Chalmers

“‘Project Graduation’,” he grumbled at Dave as he walked up. “What do I care about frickin’ ‘Project Graduation’? Why they gotta do that in the summer? They say I have to pay to have these things removed. I’ve got a dumpster says I don’t!” Dave grabbed the last couple of birds as he followed Perry to his office. “Seriously,” Perry said as he chucked the birds in a corner and settled into the cracked vinyl of his ancient dark green desk chair, “why should I give a damn about frickin’ ‘Project Graduation’? I don’t have a kid in that school.” He looked at Dave with an intensity that indicated this was not a rhetorical question, and possibly, that Dave himself, or at least his kind, was to blame for this impertinence.