Aunty

1

We slinked down the overgrown road, heading north. Wych elms and hornbeams crowded the grooved dirt path with their toothed leaves, choking the paltry path of humanity. Sparrows flopped about in the dust, ignoring the land bound troglodytes with their slimy bare skin. I turned back to look at the town. My home for four years. It hung in the distance like a damp dish towel, disappointing. I had friends, yes. Morris and Horence. Everyone else was leery of me. A young horny interloper. I could foul their daughters! Not to worry! Your daughters do not attract the craven!

Goodbye Braintree, home of the closed legs.

It had been sunny since my aunt had rolled into town yesterday. After our initial scuffle, we settled down and sit outside my shack for shag reunion. Sweating and famished, we scraped together the last of the beans and made a small pot. The sunny skies had me wondering if somehow the world had changed its tune. Was my aunt's visit a portend for greater things?

"Quit scuffling your feet,"!

Oh dear.

My aunt had walked ahead of me, her satchel swinging loosely off her freckled arm. It was full of shit I had collected in my Braintree thieveries. It bulged with a Gallic rug. A blue and white thing stained with my face grease. I had so often fell asleep looking at the hyacinth stitching that I could call up the scene at will. The starling had a badly bent beak, resembling an old man's toe. So exquisite. Aunty immediately took a liking to it. What was it about that rug that she had to steal it from me? Did she like the color, or did she see my attachment to it? She had almost choked me to death with it while grinding away last nigh...

"I SAID MOVE IT,"!

Ugh, my brain sweated under these trees. Summer was always the most haggard time. Stifling air, thick with plants and bugs. And now an irate aunty, poking me with her barbed tongue! Tiring!

"How is old Horence,"? I asked, trying to change her mood.

"That fat bastard is dumb as a twig. Your mum has him digging a new latrine for meals of starling stew. He's a dour one, but he's as strong as a horse. I expect he'll have the latrine done by the time we get back,".

I stumbled over a clump in the path, catching myself with my hand.

"Ah. Yes, Horence. He was the foreman's favorite. The mine has been hell since he left,".

The smell of standing water blew over me, damp and green. Frogs? I snuck off the path while aunty continued walking. Yes, a small pond. I grabbed a long branch from a nearby hornbeam and broke it off. Making a quick spear, I approached the water as quiet as a rabbit. There! A quick stab and... dinner squirmed as pulled the frog to my mouth, munching on the juicy legs. I peered back over to the road and saw my aunt fuming. Better catch her one or I'd never hear the end of it. I waited patiently for longer than necessary. I didn't want to miss. Then I saw the bubbles, and Stab! another one.

I jogged back to the path and handed aunty her snack, smiling.

She grabbed the frog from my hand, crushing it with dull strength. Somehow I had a feeling I'd be next...

We slept by the side of the road. It was the middle of the night and I woke as the rain began splattering on the leaves. The ground had started to cool, telling me morning comes. I listened for my aunt, and heard her short, tepid breaths. She sounded like a consumptive cat. She smelled like a damp log. Log-Cat. I chuckled to myself. Such fleeting joy now. Gah! What had become of the Zadie? Torn hand, ripped off with what? Horence maybe? An open wound that large would have a good chance of turning sour. Hopefully my mum and aunt seared it shut. They were nasty, but not stupid. They'd keep Zadie in good form, at least so she'd retain her value as a fille de joie. I wonder if Z had turned as obstinate as aunty said. One changes as one grows, that much was true. I had hit puberty with a splash, changing from submission to subversion overnight. My bones had grown hard, and the hair sprouting from my nether regions gave me a pan-like wildness. I spat when I ate. I stared back at people when they ordered me about, dragging my feet, daring them to hit me. And when they did, I laughed.