"She'd have preferred the electric chair," Melanie said.

A half grin sat on her lips as she stirred the crinkle fry in the ketchup far longer than anyone stirs crinkle fries in ketchup.

"You know when they were discovering the electric chair, they would like pay kids to bring in stray dogs and cats to electrocute to get the voltage just right," Beloved said.

"That's horrible," Melanie replied and she dropped the crinkle fry. "Why would you say that?"

"They finally tested it on an elephant!" Beloved said.

"Wait, who is they?" Melanie asked. She lifted her nose in the air and squinted.

"Whoever 'they' is I don't know," Beloved replied.

They sat together in silence a while longer.

Beloved thinks of a horrible tale his uncle told him about how the old man who lived outside of town, the one who raised alligators, would pay the neighborhood kids to bring in cats and dogs to toss to the gators. They developed a taste for tossing them live.

Melanie thought about the girl she had sabotaged socially. The one who had flirted with the boy she liked, the one who would never show her face in school, the one who hopefully would kill herself soon, if she were smart.

Beloved thought about the girl Melanie had destroyed and he wondered if she would have lunch at his house. He wondered if she would be receptive to Mom's Jesus talk and if so, how grateful Mom would be that her boy finally pulled his weight and brought in a bible study.

Finally one for the gator.