✔Vengeful Valentine

Twenty Two: Everly's Childhood

Spring of 2000

Leaves fluttered in the wind as the familiar snow cone truck tune blared across the neighborhood. Little Emmett pulled his sister down the sidewalk in her red wagon. A few other kids gathered around the snow cone truck as the two of them made their way toward the crowd. Emmett rummaged through his pocket for the change their mommy gave him earlier that morning.

While Emmett got in line, Everly stayed in her wagon with her hideous baby doll sitting across from her. She carried that thing around with her everywhere. Countless "doctor visits" to reattach limbs didn't help much either, but Everly loved the darn thing. Despite how many other baby dolls they bought her, none of them were as special as creepy Eve.

One time, when Everly accidentally spilled a cup of milk all over a comic book of Emmett's, he retaliated by drawing on her precious baby doll. No amount of scrubbing could wash away all the ink that still stained Eve's belly. At least most of it washed off the baby doll's face. Even now, the shadows of the ink could be seen on the doll's cheeks.

Emmett handed his sister the cherry flavored snow cone she wanted as he took a bite of his blue cotton candy one. He pulled the wagon back down the sidewalk as more kids hurried in line with their money. "You're heavy," he muttered, panting as he pushed on.

"Am not." Everly shoveled a spoonful of cherry snow cone in her mouth.

Flowers blossomed all across the neighborhoods and the sun shined down on them from the morning glory-blue sky. School was out for the summer, so the siblings didn't need to worry about tedious homework assignments or catching the bus early in the morning.

On their way back home, a mean little shit named Greg followed them. He reared his fat face from a neighbor's bushes, startling the Larson siblings. They let out shrieks, nearly dropping their snow cones all over themselves. That got a kick out of Greg, who had nothing else better to do. Greg happened to be a classmate of Emmett's and bullied the them whenever he got the chance, especially Everly.

The last incident the Larson's faced with Greg was when he stuck bubble gum in Everly's hair while they were coming home on the school bus. Greg thought it would be funny to try stealing Everly's precious baby doll that day, but he hadn't expected her to bite him when he tried to snatch her doll away.

"You ugly brat!" Greg spat at her, rubbing at his sore arm. Two bite marks formed on his skin.

"Leave her alone," Emmett warned, placing his snow cone down in the cupholder of the wagon.

"Yeah? Or what? You gonna do something?"

Things didn't go the way the Larson siblings wanted and Greg got a hold of her doll anyway. With a taunting grin, he held the doll up and ripped the head off. Everly burst into tears while Emmett stood up against the bigger boy and kneed him in the nuts.

Bellowing over in pain, Greg dropped the doll's body and head, which Emmett snatched up. He tossed it back in the wagon and took off with Everly as fast as his little legs could carry him. Instead of staying on the sidewalk, where the bully would predict they'd run, he took a shortcut through an elder woman's yard. It wouldn't be long before Greg got his buddies to chase after them and Emmett knew they stood no chance again all of them.

Emmett hurried home with his sister to patch up the raggedy baby doll. Everly cried all the way there too. Their mother was still working at the Chicago Police Department that afternoon, so Emmett took it upon himself to doctor up the doll.

Kids probably shouldn't use super glue, but Emmett knew that shit fixed everything, from the worn out soles of their dad's shoes to an action figure Emmett broke before. The siblings used the back porch table as their operating room. Emmett carefully daubed the glue around the creepy doll's neck, then gently pressed the head back on and held it for a few seconds. To his relief, it didn't pop back off.