The Elementals

by Michael McDowell

If I knew something to keep us safe, don’t you think I’d be doing it right now? I used to think I knew what would keep us safe, but I don’t any more. One time they gone see a cross and they gone back off, and next time they just gone laugh and make you feel like a fool. That’s real meanness in a spirit. And I tell you, they laughing now, they laughing real hard.”