I meditated on the Corn King. It is a little-discussed fact that human sacrifices are not strictly ancient occurrences. The practice continues, among certain peoples in certain places, to draw adherents. And why not? All men experience the feelings and convictions that led the earliest savages to dread hunger, isolation, abandonment, their powerlessness against nature. These stacks, certainly, were dark and haunted by demons. I drew my coat around me and, like a little boy, a child alone, prayed to feel better. Isn’t feeling better, in a general way, what blood sacrifice is for? When we draw blood from another person, either in fact or in essence, aren’t we really trying to defend against our own fears, against our own desires, against loneliness?

Didn’t I miss my father terribly? Didn’t I love alcohol in order to know him? Didn’t my brothers do the same?

I heard a noise and there was Gunner. He had an African mask in his mouth. This mask was familiar to me. It was old, wooden and immense, a brightly painted Central African tree spirit featuring an elongated chin and pronounced, scarlet cheekbones. Horizontal knife slits served as eyes, and bushy hair fashioned from dried twigs cascaded in bunches over an expansive forehead carved from some equatorial hardwood with the peeling bark still attached.

I crouched down and the dog came to me. It was a shame, really, that I had no doggy treats along with the morphine in my pockets. I said, like a true master, “That’ll do, boy.” Gunner had clearly exerted himself carrying this weighty, cumbersome mask. He opened his mouth and let me extract it from between his teeth. Saliva coated it. It was not, I should say, a mask I would have selected for myself. I’d have chosen something smaller, lighter, with bigger eyes and wearing a meaner, more threatening facial expression. I would have preferred a face without bark. The bark gave an appearance of unclear skin. This mask, with its absurdly long chin and its silly hairstyle, most likely represented some friendly, comical spirit.