Tiffany dangled the mouse by its tail. “Hello, Mousy, how
are you today?” The mouse swung gently back and forth; its
tiny black eyes dull, its lips snarled back to reveal pointy
yellow teeth, its brown body stiff and haggard. “Well,
maybe tomorrow you will feel better. Remember to stay away
from the cat.”
Tiffany laid the mouse back into the shoe box she’d filled
with shredded tissues. She pulled out the baby bird.
Covered in gray skin and black pin feathers, it smelled
strongly of insecticide. When Tiffany had caught the baby
bird, it’d been covered with tiny moving dots. Cooties.
Afterwards, Tiffany had sprayed the bird until the dots had
disappeared.
“Hello, Birdy-Birdy, how are you today?” The bird laid
motionless upon her hand; its claws curled up as though
grasping a perch, its yellow beak shut, its eyes closed.
“Taking another nap, I see. Maybe tomorrow you will feel
like singing for me.”
Tiffany returned the bird to the box then carefully fitted
the lid atop it. The lid had holes punched into it so the
animals would get fresh air.
In another box, this one she had gotten at the supermarket,
she peeked at the litter of kittens. They rested upon an
old towel her mother had given her. Asleep, all the kittens
laid in the exact same position that Tiffany had left them
before she went to kindergarten. Being very gentle, Tiffany
spread her doll’s blanket over them, she played a finger
over her lips. ”Shhh...the kitties are sleeping.”
Smiling, Tiffany looked around her room. In the corner by
the window sat the box that her daddy had brought home from
his office. It had a lid that fit on it exactly like the
shoe box. She already knew what she would put in it,
something that her mommy and daddy never let her play with,
like they’d never let her play with Mousy and Birdy-Birdy
and the litter of kittens.
She’d have to make sure it stayed quiet. Too big to step
on, maybe she could drop it like she’d dropped the kittens.
Or maybe she could put a pillow over its head until it
stopped crying.
She should go check on it. Tiffany ran out of her room and
down the hall. Maybe this time mommy and daddy wouldn’t be
playing with it, maybe this time it’d be her turn to play,
to play with the new baby.
x x x
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