Step…
Step…
Malcolm felt the moisture in his hands and rubbed the palms against his pants yet again.
Step…
A floorboard creaked. It did not stop him. His hearing shut down that afternoon, right after talking to his brother Greg. Right after learning about…
Kielle. Before him, light from the kitchen stained the darkness in which he drifted. Malcolm’s eyes locked on the one thing that lay on the floor.
It’s so tiny, he thought.
***
STATEMENT - Dorothy Benson, neighbor:
A brat, she was. A brat, I tell you. That girl, she was mean. And the reason for that was because she could get away with anything.
And she knew it.
***
Step…
He could not recognize the house anymore. He had been inside thousands of times, but this afternoon it was foreign. Tainted. The whole place was poisoned, corrupted. He could feel it on his flesh, invasive, rotting everything in its path, going for his mind.
Greg, what happened?
The sobs still hammered his brain. Malcolm wished he could forget.
She never liked him! Never!
On the floor, the thing made everything real and the more he looked at it, the more he felt inside a nightmare.
Step…
Kielle never liked Tommy.
Step…
***
STATEMENT - Marla Gunther, friend of the family:
I remember this one time when Judith came to visit. She brought the kids with her, Kielle and the baby. I remember giving Kielle some crayons and paper so that she could sit at the dinner table and draw while Judith and I chatted. I will never forget that day. I was pouring Judith some iced tea when the baby started crying and I saw that awful girl. She has hitting the baby on the head with a crayon! I remember I grabbed her by the wrist and yelled something at her. Her eyes! There was… a meanness in them! It scared me to death. She screamed at me to let go of her. Then she turned to Judith and said “I don’t like this baby.”
Then she stormed out of the house.
***
Malcolm found himself kneeling and holding the paper hat, though he couldn’t really tell when he had knelt in the first place.
So tiny, he thought again.
The hat was cone-shaped, red with yellow stars and the picture of a happy clown with huge shoes. It was bashed in on one side and the elastic band hung loose from one of the staples.
Greg, what happened?
I left Kielle with Judith. She wanted to watch Judith decorate her birthday cake. I went out for candles. Fifteen minutes, Malcolm! Fifteen minutes! I was gone for fifteen minutes!!
Sobs.
Greg?
Sobs bouncing off every wall in the house.
Greg what happened to Tommy?
Malcolm got up.
Step…
***
STATEMENT - Peter Lohan, Greg’s best friend:
Me and Patty, we went to Greg’s house about 6 months ago, shortly after the baby was born. Patty had to use the bathroom. Now, she won’t tell you this, but she saw the girl. She was standing by the baby’s crib and saying something like: “I don’t want you here. I am Mommy’s favorite.”
You´d think it’s normal for a little girl to act that way when a new baby is brought home. Patty did mention something to Greg and Judith. Judith, she was embarrassed, kept telling us, assuring us, that Patty must have misheard.
But I looked at Greg and he knew better.
***
Step…
Inside the kitchen. Dirty dishes. Open oven. A cake with a slice missing.
Chocolate cake.
And paper cups, and napkins, and plates.
And paper hats, only these were not crumpled, these were pretty. These didn’t mean anything so… hideous.
Step…
The faucet dripped a puddle on a plate. Malcolm could hear it now. He could hear everything now. The leaking faucet, the fan on top of the counter…
In the living room, Greg sobbed.
Step…
Stop.
Oh, Kielle.
He stared at the refrigerator for ten minutes, maybe twenty, maybe more. He wanted to scream, only he felt that would not change a thing. The smear would still be there. Red, small.
Shaped like a tiny hand.
Kielle, why couldn’t you love him?
He opened the fridge.
Then he did scream.
***
STATEMENT - Nora Patterson, Judith’s sister:
If only Judith had seen Kielle for what she really was, this selfish brat. She never loved little Tommy, not a single day she loved him. But Judith turned the blind eye. In her mind, Kielle was an angel...
***
Malcolm found Judith in her bedroom, sitting by the window with Kielle on her lap. The mother brushed the daughter’s hair with the hands of a fairy. The daughter, wearing a beautiful pink dress with white lace, licked a lollipop and smiled.
“Why?” he asked with a dry mouth.
In the dim light of the bedroom, Judith raised her face and Malcolm could see she was crying.
“I had to choose,” she said. “She told me to choose.”
***
STATEMENT - Nora Patterson (continued):
…but when she turned her back, her little “angel” would show her true face. She would look you right in the eye and say: “My Mommy only listens to me. I’m Mommy’s favorite! She loves only me.”
