And Now We Shall Do Manly Things (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Right up to the asterisk. From that point forward, it was the way I had imagined things happening, the way they should have happened. Emerging from the reeds at the base of the hill, I really did have a vision and say to myself I’m about to shoot my first pheasant. And I really did rehearse mentally all the things I had learned. And as we crested the hill, which afforded an awe-strikingly beautiful view of the bucolic wonder that is Iowa, the grass did get shorter. In fact, the whole thing went down the exact way I described. The rooster popped up unbidden by dogs directly in front of me, just slightly higher than eye level. I moved as if by rote or instinct, raising my gun and feeling time itself slow down. I felt like I was married to that gun, and for a long moment, my mind went blank of all expectation and insight. I simply was—in the moment, doing what felt so natural. I selected a small bunch of feathers just above the bird’s spindly tail and my eyes focused in such a way that the world itself seemed to disappear.
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