baby god
Baby has dirt in its eyes. Baby is crying dirty puddles, splash splash on the linoleum. Baby is caked with mud. I am swabbing away the dirt with balls of cotton wool and oil, gently easing it off Baby’s skin, slowly revealing the lustrous soft brown of its body. Baby’s crying is monstrous, far too loud. Within its screams I can hear pneumatic drills, ringing telephones, alarm clocks, cats fighting, cars backfiring, trees falling, nuclear bombs exploding. There are frightening little cracks as my tiny ear bones break.
Shush now, it’s alright, I say. I think I’m shouting. Through the kitchen window I can see the dog sniffing round the big hole in the garden. And it’s raining, making everything green and jungly. I want to get Baby clean and get outside and fill the hole up before everything turns to mud. If only it would stop crying! I imagine myself filling the sink with tepid water, and holding Baby underneath for a long time, until silence. Such thoughts. But then Baby stops, and tears spring to my own eyes, I am so relieved and grateful.
Now we can be a family. But Baby won’t eat. I put it to my breast and it turns its face away. I hold a rubber nipple at its lips, dripping milk into its mouth, but Baby spits everything out. Baby grows old and small, its head withering to a wispy point, its fingers twisted and gnarly.
Winter comes. Everything in the garden is dying. Rose petals turn grey and crispy, the soil hardens, the sky is growing black. Then the dog is sick. She won’t move from her bed, and whimpers when I try to touch her. Our house is too cold. There are cracks in the linoleum that I never noticed before, and peeling wallpaper and broken hinges and ceilings that sag and leak and drip water.
So I take a spade and I try to dig the hole again, but the ground is so hard and dry now. Still I scratch at the grey soil, stab my spade into the ground so hard that it jars my whole body. I pour on buckets of water, watching it run off into the drain. I dig and dig, with bleeding hands; spine breaking, heart breaking, but I must make a hole that is deep enough for Baby.
mand said,
October 26, 2009 at 1:24 pm
oooh… {shiver}
Some won’t like this, but any fiction that goes near the crumbling edges and risks falling off is good fiction, as i see it.
thebeardedlady said,
October 26, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Thank you mand!
This story is my homage to Lisa Tuttle – it’s my version of a short story she wrote called Jamie’s Grave.
martin said,
October 26, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Yay for Lisa Tuttle!
thebeardedlady said,
October 26, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Ha ha, I’ve been reading your books, martin!
mand said,
October 26, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I’ll have to look out Lisa Tuttle.
But this Martin bloke hasn’t added a link here… :0|
thebeardedlady said,
October 26, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Do you mean a link to Lisa Tuttle or a link to martin (who I shall defend from all accusations of blokeness)?
If you meant to Lisa Tuttle, there is a link in my comment above – let me know if that link doesn’t work.
If you meant martin, then I’m afraid you’re shit outta luck!
mand said,
October 26, 2009 at 3:33 pm
No, i spotted the Lisa Tuttle one but you mentioned reading Martin’s books which made me nosy. Never mind. I’m too slow a reader anyway to get through all the goodies on my Must Read Before I Die list.
thebeardedlady said,
October 26, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Ah, I meant martin’s books, as in books he owns, rather than ones he writes. Although he is a very good writer.
mand said,
October 26, 2009 at 4:57 pm
D’oh!
Reno said,
November 1, 2009 at 2:54 am
My thought process as I was reading through these comments was exactly the same as Mand’s
I should be doing homework right now, but I wanted to pop over here for some inspiration before I start NaNoWriMo in a few hours. I’m very delighted to find three new stories
thebeardedlady said,
November 1, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Heya Reno,
Sorry for causing confusion in the comments section!
Good luck with Nano
mand said,
November 1, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Great minds, Reno. Or some kind of mind anyway. Btw your Blogger link is a dead link. :0(
Reno said,
November 5, 2009 at 1:03 am
Oops, thanks for letting me know, I was missing an s ^^;
mand said,
November 5, 2009 at 6:44 pm
That’s why i always cut-n-paste! Don’t trust my fingers. (Btw where did that ‘about’ quiz come from? – now that you have a working link)
thebeardedlady said,
November 6, 2009 at 5:39 pm
It works now Reno! Hope the Nanoing is going well
Reno said,
November 8, 2009 at 1:43 am
Thanks! It’s…coming along. I’m only about 700 words behind, plus my words for today…I should go work on that now XD
Also, @mand, I think I actually found that one on Facebook