Free Women & Other Animals by Bonnie Jo. Campbell

pale and delicate, straining to contain the sagging mass of her face. She had virtually no eyebrows and no visible neck. Her short reddish hair was cut the way Bess used to cut her dolls' hair, uneven and bristly. Bess ran her hand over her own neck and through her heavy shoulderlength hair, but she couldn't look away. Victoria took tiny steps, heaving side to side. Her arms stuck out from her body, and her thighs rubbed together like massive limbless lovers dryhumping through turquoise polyester. A paper bag clutched firmly in one hand, a purse the size of a roast beef in the other, she took the porch stairs one foot at a time, resting at each step, her breathing labored.
    Sirens blew in the background as fire trucks and police rushed to the accident to the east. Bess yearned to run along the tracks, to Page 48
    discover broken glass and twisted metal scattered over the railroad stones, but her eyes were on Victoria and her awesome locomotion onto the top step.
    "Come on, Bess," said Hal. "Let's go see what happened."
    "There's an accident," said Bess, feeling, for the first time she could remember, a need to apologize to Victoria.
    The woman stepped onto the middle of the porch. Bess realized Victoria had probably never intended to have children, had never meant to make herself the center of such a circle, and yet there she had been, left alone with two of somebody else's. The sirens overpowered the sounds of creaking boards, and without warning, Victoria was crashing through the porch floor.
    Brother and sister stared at the hole and at the head which stuck out.
    "Stop gawking and get me out of here!" Victoria's sleeve was torn, and a few scrapes on her shoulder began to color with blood. Bess hesitantly grabbed Victoria under one armpit, and Hal held the other. They tugged but couldn't budge her. Bess felt her hand being enveloped by folds of damp flesh. She had avoided touching Victoria for years, for fear that anything about her might be contagious.
    "Help me!" Victoria roared.
    "Can't you crawl underneath?" suggested Bess, but upon inspection she saw that the perimeter was concrete blocks cemented in place, even behind the stairs. "Can you move at all?"
    "I can't move!" Victoria shrieked. "Who built this damn porch? There's bricks down here. My foot's twisted."
    "Maybe you should sit?" suggested Bess.
    "Didn't you hear me? I can't move!"
    Bess looked to Hal, but now he was leaning against the wall, his arms folded, grinning. "Isn't this an interesting situation," he said. He picked up Victoria's grocery bag, pulled out a bag of chocolatecovered nuts and swung them back and forth. "Are you still hungry, Bess?" He produced a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and held his hand in front of it as if he were a game show beauty. "Chocolate Fudge Brownie."
    "That food's mine!" said Victoria.
    "We're going to need energy to get you out of there." Hal ripped
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    open the bag of nuts with his teeth and got a spoon from the kitchen. Sitting on the steps just five feet in front of Victoria, Hal tossed chocolatecoated nuts into the air, one at a time, and caught them in his mouth. Bess marveled that not a single nut fell on the ground. When Hal opened the ice cream and handed it to her, Bess couldn't stop herself from biting spoonful after spoonful.
    "You little rats!" screamed Victoria, her voice deteriorating as she grew angrier. "Get me oudear! Ass my food!"
    A red Camaro in pretty good shape pulled in the driveway, and out stepped Jimmy, carrying something blue.
    "My hat!" shouted Bess, snatching it out of his hand.
    "You left it in the car."
    "Hi, Jimmy. This is my brother Hal." Bess pulled the security guard hat onto her head.
    "Welcome to the carnival, kid. The fat lady is there behind us," said Hal, crinkling up the empty plastic bag. Bess nudged him with an elbow. She couldn't stay mad at Hal.
    "Care for the last nut?" he asked, holding it up, offering it to Bess, then Jimmy.
    Jimmy shook his head no. He looked mild