Corey Riner

Four Letters

The crowd had been building since noon. People were scrambling to complete their errands and meet the deadline. The event was a nuisance, long reviled by the public as unnecessary. The seasons changed, lives continued, but that looming blade on the field was a constant in the community. A trio of siblings giggled among themselves as they played with the metal collars around their necks, pointing at the guillotine and feigning overdramatic deaths. Their mother silenced them with a wide-eyed stare and continued the conversation she was having with one of her neighbors.