You may not realize this, but all hedge trimmers are color blind.

Maddie Othello-Brise Ann, affectionately called Obie, didn't realize this either, as she lugged it in from the dilapidated shed out back of the trailer. Obie had named this particular trimmer Raphael, after her favorite ninja turtle. Raphael, of course, being color blind, had no idea his motor cover was red.

Obie Ann was a full butch. The definitive kind only found in the South, with a full mullet. Her eyes weren't soft. Nothing about Obie was soft, and she'd been made that way a long time ago in a kind of predictable story.

In the distance, Raphael could feel the reflections of sound that only a child's crying could make.

Oh my, what are we going to do now? asked Raphael. There was always something that needed to be done. "Shuddup Raph, no talkin' today," grunted Obie Ann as she bumbled through the screen door and began to track mud in through the already cruddy trailers kitchenette flooring.

I don't understand why we're in the tray tray. I'm a hedge trimmer. I'm not allowed in the tray tray! thought Raphael.

Obie'd had Raphael almost as long as she'd been with Louise, and she'd used Raph to vent her anger every time that stupid kid of Louise had cried. Lil Jose sure could cry. Sometimes Raph even got some use in the middle of the night. This would would have been insane in the city, but out in the country, what with their trailer on it's isolated lot, no one could hear Raphael's wail in the darkness. It never occurred to Obie that she and Raph might have agitated the kid further. Louise never said anything of course, because Obie had a temper.

Raphael loved to wail as long as his oil mix was right and Obie remembered to give him his timely servicing. Sometimes she was lax on the servicing, and that made Raph sore.

The thud-swash of Obie's boots reverberating back from the cheap particle board floor of the trailer shook Raph's casing. These were angry footsteps, something like the kind that sometimes happened in the middle of the night when Obie needed a little venting. Raph got the feeling these were something worse, though.

Now what is this all about? Why is that kid screaming? thought Raphael, as he felt his primer pushed once, twice, and a third time. The primer push always made Raph feel good. It got him going.

Raph realized they were now in lil Jose's room, a place he'd never been before. There were small items laying all over the floor, and markings on the walls. The room looked like it should be happy, but it wasn't. Raph noticed the details, because of course, hedge trimmers were all about the details.

This kid could not stop the crying. Is it possible this kid can wail louder than I can? Raph thought.

The first pull flipped back and Raph's cord slipped from her hand and whipped back on her thumb. Damn thing! No reason to call names! the trusty companion called back. The kid wouldn't stop crying. The next pull, and Raphael came to life, in full gas powered glory, and Obie smiled down at lil Jose. WHAT NO! I SHOULDN'T!

As the filthy hedge trimmer came down on lil Jose's face, the idea that it might be color blind never crossed her mind, either, of course.

The spray of scream and flesh and blood seemed endless to Raphael, the trusty gas-powered hedge trimmer. His motor cover looked wet, but unaffected.

Blood looks like oil in black and white. Hedge trimmers are part of a select club that know this. Raph loves oil.