Free Creepy and Maud by Dianne Touchell Page B

watching Maud get hurt, it was really the opportunity to humiliate Li that motivated me. What did I do? I stepped out of cover and into the wide open frame of my bedroom window, binoculars and all. When Lionel saw me, I waved.
     
    We went to a local circus once. It was pretty dismal, from what I remember. The sort of place that ends up on 60 Minutes for health code violations and ferris wheel injuries. At one of the shows, a bloke dressed like Jack Sparrow was coaxing all these little dogs into jumping through flaming hoops. I swear you could smell singed pelt. And when I say coaxing, I mean cajoling, wheedling and bullying. He had a miniature whip that he kept cracking and we were all supposed to be laughing because it was funny (wasn’t it?) that he was emulating a lion tamer with these skinny mutts. Jack Sparrow was clearly very pleased with himself. Then an interesting thing happened. One of the dogs, rather than leaping through the fiery hoop, turned tail and launched itself at Jack Sparrow. Jack started flailing his whip armabout in a frenzy, but it was all too late to prevent the dog from hitting Jack in the belly like a javelin and sinking its teeth in.
     
    People were laughing and cheering, but I was watching Jack Sparrow’s face. He looked ashamed. All of his authority, all of his control, draining out of his eye sockets, leaving his head deflated and his body mortified. He stumbled out of the ring with the dog still attached. That’s who I saw when I waved at Li. Jack Sparrow from the circus, with a little dog clenched onto his flesh. Except I was the little dog. He was bitten and, at that moment, too ashamed to have any other response than to drop his hands from Maud’s head and stumble out of her bedroom. I knew I had to execute the next part of my plan while Nanna’s guests were still eating, drinking and making merry, so I wrote and placed the following without thought or preamble:
     
    —Meet me at the side fence
     
    I ran downstairs as quickly as I could. I was still picturing Lionel removing my teeth from his belly when I reached the fence. I could just see between the pickets. I could smell curry and see profiteroles. There were some decent looking salads, too. Some music I didn’t recognise was playing on a portable CD player. Panpipes? Bloody hell—cheerio, Nanna! No music at the dig site but panpipes at the party! As I waited at the fence, Iwondered for a moment if she would really come. Then I saw her coming down the back steps on the other side of the trestle table. She crossed the lawn quickly and arrived at the fence a little south of my location. I adjusted my position accordingly until we would have been face-to-face if not for the picket fence between us. We had never been this close before.
     
    I could hear her breathing. I reached my hand up and over the top of the fence. She stood there for a minute, not responding, then she reached up and I felt her fingers graze my fist. I opened my hand and dropped the little gold apple charm into her palm.
     
    It’s about an hour later, and Limo-Li is taking a swing at my dad. I am upstairs watching Maud, who has removed her belt and unbuttoned her funeral dress. The little gold apple charm is fastened to her bellybutton ring, shiny and secure against her white belly.
     

SEVENTEEN

    Buds-that-Do-Not-Grow

    Nan-na-was-my-friend. She had been sick for a long time. She did not even know who I was anymore. She had become this tiny thing, with skin like crepe paper, as translucent as an insect wing. She did not speak, she just spent her days curling in on herself, getting smaller and smaller, until she looked like some sort of in-utero thing. A kidney bean with little buds that would never again grow to be arms and legs, but would rather wither away until she would fit inside my doll’s house. I was fascinated, and repulsed, by this transformation. I hated going to see her.
     
    I know I should be feeling something and I feel bad because I do