Free Little Round Head by Michael Marano Page B

bones.
    Father said, “You were very brave, Little Round Head. I want to give you something for being so very brave.”
    And Father put the food he was carrying on a shelf and picked up one of the long boxes and shook out the old rags and bone and skin and put the food inside it. Then he hunched down low for me to climb on his back.
    When we got home we found Mother up high where the metal pipes are. When Father and I saw her there we all laughed because we knew she was scared and lonely and climbed up there so she can drop on things that come into our home and rip their backs out. Once she dropped on a thing that looked like the Bad Father except it had a yellow head bone that was metal with a light on the forehead. When Mother dropped on it, it screamed and the head bone fell off and the light made scary shadows on the wall while I hid. Later, I got the yellow head bone with the light so I could see in the tunnels better. The head bone was fun, but soon all the light got used up. I still keep it where I sleep, along with a belt the thing had that had lots of shiny metal things hanging off it that make a nice jangling sound when I shake it.
    Mother dropped down and kissed us and cleaned us. Father put the long box up where I sleep and told me I could sleep in the box and not be cold from drafts at night. I got in the box and it smelled like the dry dusty food we get sometimes. It was warm and very soft because it had a special cloth in it. Father told me the special cloth is called “velvet” and he wanted me to sleep on something nice and there was even a fluffy thing where my head went.
    Later, as Mother and Father clean themselves and bits of their fur come off on their tongues and hands, they put the fur in the box so I will be even warmer at night and the fur smells like them and I am happy and have nice dreams all the time.
    Sometimes I wake up to find that Mother and Father have been kissing me while I am asleep and they put more fur in the box.
    Mother sleeps and sleeps, and when she wakes up she doesn’t move fast like when she is well.
    I ask Father what is wrong, and Father says she is all right, and nothing bad will happen.
    Father brings food like always, but he brings a little more for Mother. Father has to give her lots of milk and sometimes he saves the paper box and goes out and fills it with the red food. Mother wants to share the milk, but Father and I take only little sips so Mother will have more.
    At night I go to sleep in my box full of warm fur and I cry. I have lots of dreams about the Bad Mother and Bad Father. They burn me with the white sticks and cut me with glass and hit me with belts.
    I wake up from the dream lots of times and hear Mother breathing funny, like her chest is full of water.
    I hold my doll close to try to make it feel safe, but it is too smart and knows that I am scared too.
    Father took me to get food today.
    I didn’t want to go. Mother is too sick to go up the metal pipes to drop on bad things or go up there to hide.
    But I went anyway, to carry more food back for Mother.
    Father carried me along the tunnels, but we went a different way than before. Father whispered to me, “I want to show you something, Little Round Head.” And then he turned to the wall of the tunnel and there were metal things sticking out that Father climbed up easy. When we went up top there was a metal circle thing that Father pushed, and “
shraaaang!!
” it moved and scraped against something.
    There were outside smells.
    Father climbed through where the metal thing was and I saw a strange, strange place. There was a big building made of blocks of red stones that went up and up. Way up top of the building were big tunnels and lots of smoke came out of them and went into the dark sky and funny smells and sounds came from the building. Sounds like “
rrrrrrrrr!
” and smells like the bad steams that come out from deep in the tunnels near home sometimes.
    There were lights up high on green metal