Spiders & Dresses
As soon as she could, Penny took Kitty over to Bethany’s house. “Mom, can we get another kitten? Can we get another kitten?” Bethany chanted until Mrs. Lowell got off the sofa and chased them out of the house. She had a bad cold and wanted sleep.
“She’s so adorable.” Bethany cuddled the cat in her arms, tickling her tummy. “Hey, let’s dress her!” She got out all her doll’s clothes and picked a pink lace dress for Kitty to wear. Kitty struggled to get out of it.
“Cats don’t wear clothes, dummy,” Chris reprimanded her.
“Who says they don’t?”
“God, you are so stupid.”
“Mom told you not to call me stupid anymore.”
“She didn’t say I couldn’t call you asinine.”
“What does that mean?”
“God, you are so stupid.”
“You can’t say that anymore! You can’t!”
Erin marched into the backyard with a glass jar in her hands. “Look what I’ve got.”
Caught inside the jar was a huge brown spider, its legs hairy and thick.
“Cool.” Chris tried to get at the jar.
“Get your own,” Erin snapped. “Look, Bethany, look. Spider.”
Bethany screamed.
“It’s going in your mouth! Scream, Bethany, scream!”
Bethany rolled on the ground in a fit.
“Baby, baby, baby,” Erin chanted. “You a baby too, Penny?”
Penny held still as Erin put the jar right up to her face.
“Where’d you find it?” Chris asked.
“Up in the attic. Remember all the yucky things we found in the attic, Bethany? Why does she have all her doll clothes out?”
“She was trying to dress Penny’s kitten,” Chris said. “Pretty asinine, Bethany, asinine.”
Bethany scrambled for her doll clothes. Erin unscrewed the jar and let the spider out onto her hand. “Come here, Little Miss Muffet. You want to dress the spider? Pretty spider, pretty spider.”
Erin sat on Bethany. She held the spider up to her mouth. “Eat it! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!”
“Can’t I get any peace and quiet — just for once in my life?” They all jumped. Penny had never seen Mrs. Lowell so angry. “Erin, get in the house. Now! Penny, go home. Bethany, stop screaming! Just shut up — all of you — just shut up!”
Penny grabbed Kitty and ran home.
Excerpt from Anchored Leaves. Buy at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBookStore, etc.
