In the book, a great commotion was caused at Shotgun's wake when the gauze that hung over the open coffin moved mysteriously. As the gauze began rippling and puckering on one end, the vigil attendees became visibly frightened. The suddenly mobile hearse cloth had changed a respectable vigil into a seemingly macabre, paranormal experience; it gave the impression that the deceased man was desperately trying to come back to life.
When the reporter realized what was happening, he miraculously snapped out of his alcohol-induced stupor. It was at this time that Grandma Dowdel grabbed her twelve-gauge Winchester rifle and fired off both barrels. She blew the lid off the coffin and sprayed bullets above the heads of the terrified mourners. The reporter was so terrified that he didn't dare find his way to the door. Instead, he leaped out the window, screaming that the dead had come back to life and Grandma Dowdel was shooting at him.
Meanwhile, the narrator and his grandmother were presumably the only ones who saw her tomcat flee from the inside of the coffin after the bullets flew. The narrator surmised that his grandmother must have gotten some ideas when she initially saw her cat enter the coffin. So, in the story, the commotion was actually caused by Grandma Dowdel's cat. The old woman just took advantage of her cat's antics to create even more commotion by shooting off both barrels of her rifle.
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