The Cliff

To me, I care.  My father doesn’t understand me.  He laughs, but I know better.

“Come girl, it’s nothing.”  My father urged.

“No!  I don’t like you.”  I ran out of the house slamming the screen door behind me.  I could hear him laughing.  The hill was steep, but I had a place to go.  I didn’t need to listen to him.  He’s a stupid man.

I know I was far now, but I could still hear him behind me, as if he was near.  I jumped out from fright and slowly turned to see his evil face.  But he was gone and now his laughter that was haunting me had become a distant memory.  I laughed out loud, because I’ve gotten the best of it and won.

Squeezing my dolly tight, that I had been clutching onto, I kissed her stiff lips.

“Don’t worry dolly, I’ll find a safe place for you.  Daddy’s wrong.  You don’t belong in the fire.  I have a special place for you.”  But dolly didn’t respond as she had done many times before.  I know daddy killed her, even if he didn’t admit it.  A piece of her head was torn and hung in a miserable way, flapping about as I continued to run up the hill.

There in the distance was the tree where I go to look over the cliff down on our farm.  I can see daddy in the distance on the front porch searching for me.

“Shoot!”  I fell to the ground, laying on my stomach.  I needed to be invisible.  With just my head emerging from the ground, and dolly laying lifeless next to me, I peeked to see if he was still there.

“Oh, good.”  I sighed.  He had gone back in.

Crawling to the tree, I rested my back against it and sat dolly’s lifeless body in my lap.

“You see those flowers.  That’s where you are going.  It’s going to be your new home.  Dolly’s lips were smudged with dirt.  I kissed it off and attempted to stick her hanging flesh back into her head.

“Help.”  Dolly gasped struggling to speak.  She was going faster than I thought.

“Oh, no!  Don’t go!”  I cried out loud.  Dolly was leaving me.  I quickly began digging into the ground with my fingertips, between the bed of flowers.  I was going to make her live again.

“There!  Your bed to rest.  You’ll be safe here.  You’ll grow again.  Once you’re planted.  You’ll see, you’ll live again!”  Tears were already rolling down my face.

I can see dolly smiling as her eyes closed slowly.  I laid her down to bed and covered her up.  She was decorated with pink, blue, yellow and orange flowers.  She was resting now and she will sprout again.  Her head will heal and she will be like new.

The breeze picked up, but I wasn’t worried.  The bed of flowers was going to protect dolly from being awaken before she finished resting.

I stayed against the tree.  My granddaddy had killed my dolly and I couldn’t wait for my daddy to come home to tell on him.  Granddaddy will be punished.  My daddy was the head of the military and he had fighting power.  All granddaddy had was his terrible mouth and his evil ways.

The heat was much more powerful than the breeze.  It made me think how much I wanted it to turn into fire and burn down granddaddy’s evil ways.  He had no right to touch dolly.  Her head had been badly banged up and torn.  Pieces of it were inside of her head making noise when she moved.  She had been screaming out ofpain when I heard her.  She was downstairs on the couch, when I heard from my bedroom.  I ran to save her, but it was too late.

This heat was getting me before it could hurt daddy.  It must be from running up the hill.  My eyes were getting heavy and sleep was taken me, no matter how hard the breeze tried to keep me awake.  I fell asleep, thinking about my dolly’s head.

Misshapen

“Shh!  Hold her still.”

“I’m trying.  She’s fighting us.  Just get her in the car.”

They spun away leaving the farm, but Jennifer was still awake screaming out loud.  Now, that she was in the car, they released her.

“Can you keep her quite!”

“She’s a child, what do you expect.  Just hurry up.  We need to get out of here before he wakes up and gets help.”

There was laughter, remembering the ambush and knocking Jennifer’s uncle down to the ground and leaving him for dead, amused them.

The room where they placed her was cold and scared her terribly.  She screamed louder where her voice echoed off the walls intensifying her cries.  Then the needle came.  She couldn’t cry out loud, but she was still screaming inside and she still heard her voice echoing off the walls of the metal room.

She laid still, frozen on a table unable to move.  Her eyes were the only thing that had movement.  It showed nothing, but fear.  She had left her body and was now looking down at herself, watching what they were doing.

They were dressed in suits from head to toe, covering their identity, and acting as if she was a biological weapon.  Her floating self gasped asshe saw them cutting her skull open and her eyes moving about.  They entered prodding and removing things.  It wasn’t long, but one of them walked out with a piece of her brain, while the other one started to sew her up again.  But he wasn’t able to finish.

She was still screaming and her eyes were moving about when her floating self returned to her little body.  The doors had been knocked off the hinges.  All she heard was fighting as she fell asleep.

My Pet

“Daddy?  Where am I?”

“Home.”  What were you doing on top of the hill?  Alone.”  Daddy had a small smile and waited with patience to listen to me.

“Granddaddy killed my dolly.  He banged her head up and put pieces of her head inside.”  I yelled.

“Why would daddy do that?”

“He’s evil.  He doesn’t like dolly.  He never liked dolly.  He’s always jealous of her.”  I’m sure of it.  Daddy needs to know about him.

“He said he didn’t do anything to dolly and that it was you.”

“Me!  Why would I do that?  I never did it.  Dolly was on the couch downstairs when I heard her screaming.  It’s true.”  Daddy please believe me.  I didn’t do something like that.

“Where’s dolly now?  Where did you put her?  Daddy said you ran out of the house up the hill with dolly.  Where is she?”  My father was doing his military on me with his questions, but I wasn’t at fault.  It was granddaddy.

“She’s sleeping in her bed.  She’s going to rest and then wake up again like a new person.  She’s surrounded by flowers and is high on the hill over daddy.  When she wakes up she will look down on us.”  I spoke softly.  Daddy knew what I meant when he saw me frown.

I tried to save her, but I couldn’t.  I couldn’t get to her in time.  And granddaddy laughed.  He knew what really happened.  He knew it was his fault.

“That’s good.  What you did is good.  She’s safe now and your safe too.  Granddaddy won’t hurt you or your dolly.  No one in this house will hurt you.  And if anything bad happens you must tell me everything.  Okay?”  Daddy smiled.

“Okay.”  My eyes lifted with a new found spirit inside of me.  My daddy loved me and wanted to protect me.  Maybe dolly fell down the stairs.  Maybe it wasn’t granddaddy, because daddy never lied to me.

“I’ll tell granddaddy I’m sorry.”  I said grinning.

“Good.  I know he loves you and he’s not angry.”  Daddy gave me a peck that brought out a huge smile, because I was going to grow up and marry him one day.

He had brought me new shiny shoes that I immediately put on.  I had to show everyone, especially June.  She was my young mother.  Always fixing my hair and dressing me up.  My auntie, June, loved me as I am, no matter what I look like.”  She would say.

“June.  Look!”  I pointed at my shiny pink shoes.  She laughed.

“Those are ugly.  Pink is ugly!”  She laughed.

I fretted.  She’s so jealous.  Granddaddy said she was jealous of me, and that’s why she says mean words when she means to say good words.

“I like them.  Daddy says he loves me and that I look pretty.”  I smiled.  I had bright teeth too, because he taught me to brush them often during the day, even when I didn’t need to.

Granddaddy burst out with laughter.  “Come here girl.  Let me take a look at you.  Let me see those shiny shoes.”

I slammed my feet down with every step making lots of noise as I ran over to him.

“Whoa!  Those shoes are bigger than mine!  Beautiful.”  Daddy said with a big smile, before lifting me up and sitting me down on one of his knees.  He kissed the top of my head as I looked at daddy giving him our special wink for the talk we just had.  Sheri bought me some hot chocolate chip cookies as granddaddy helped me eat the plateful.

“Friends?”  Granddaddy said as he held me, preventing me from slipping out of his lap.

“Okay.”  I smiled.

“Good, because that pig is ripe!”  He laughed.  I jumped off his lap and turned to look at him.

“Ripe?  What do you mean?”  Confused, but I sensed daddy was up to no good.

He grinned, “you’ve been taking good care of him.  Now, it’s our turn to take care of him.”  He rubbed his stomach.

I gasped, “no!” and ran to daddy.  He couldn’t mean what I was thinking.  Daddy lift me up all the way into the air.  I reached for the ceiling but couldn’t touch it.

“Daddy, what does granddaddy mean?  My pet is not ripe.  Didn’t he say I can have it as a pet?  Didn’t he?”  I pleaded.

“I don’t know what he means.  Just that you are doing a good job.”  Daddy was my friend and was always on my side.

“But his name is not Ripe.  His name is Sissy.”  I smiled.

“Girl!  You can’t give that pig a girl’s name if it’s a boy.  Sissy is not a good name.”  Granddaddy was determined to fight with me.  He was always fighting.

“It’s not a girl’s name.  And I don’t like Ripe.  Ripe can’t be his name!”  I yelled back.  Everyone laughed.

I ran out to check on Sissy and saw that he had a new bow.  I gave him a fresh bowl of food that he gobbled up.

“See that Sissy.  Daddy tried to call you Ripe, but your name is Sissy.  I know you.  Daddy doesn’t.”  Sissy laughed at my words.

“Come on girl!”  Granddaddy yelled at the door.  “Dinner!”

I ran inside and washed up, sitting next to daddy at the head of the table in my high chair, because I was a princess and daddy was a prince and granddaddy said he used to be a king, but no one knows it.

June rolled her eyes, because she hates my high chair.

“Mmm, this pork is ripe.  Tasty.”  June laughed as she spoke.

“I like it too,” I said licking my lips.

“We don’t need to adorn our food.  You both know better than that.  Be grateful.”  Daddy said.  Granddaddy grinned and gave me a wink.

“June said it first.  She adorned first.  She’s bad.”  I said.

“Yeah, June, your bad.”  Granddaddy said laughing.  June laughed at him.

Dinner was good that night.  My daddy came home and dolly was resting.  And most of all I had my warm chocolate chip cookies.  My favorite.  But granddaddy doesn’t like Sheri too much.  He says she’s an unfit wife and had poor manners; not at all fit for any king.  I winked at Sheri and she winked back.  She was going to make me more chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I couldn’t wait.