The Trees

by Percival Everett

“Mr. Mayor, this here is the sovereign state of Mississippi. There ain’t no law enforcement, there’s just rednecks like me paid by rednecks like you.”

Seems to be the case nationwide.

Jesus Gawd Almighty, it’s clear that you ain’t aimed to take the best of us, givin’ you chose to take Wheat and Junior Junior,

Damn! HA HA!

However, the crime, the practice, the religion of it, was becoming more pernicious as he realized that the similarity of their deaths had caused these men and women to be at once erased and coalesced like one piece, like one body. They were all number and no number at all, many and one, a symptom, a sign.