294. The children all hauled a lumbering beast behind them

The children all hauled a lumbering beast behind them, a hundred feet tall, its arms and legs the size of tree trunks. On top of the beasts a small forest grew, with lush pines and green meadows, a safe haven to retreat at night, to eat and rest for another day’s march along the barren plains.

I had often asked them why they journeyed the globe this way. How they had tamed the beasts and why they were only led by children, not by adults – the sight of whom I had yet to experience in this strange land. But they never spoke a word. All they did was walk into the big nowhere.

Not until my fifth week did I notice a change in the pattern. I saw one of the older girls of the troupe  climbing from her beast, kissing it goodbye and then wandering off into the night. I tried running after her but the beast blocked my path until the darkness had swallowed her.

The following day the beast that had lost it’s child, decided to stay behind, broken-hearted, yet somehow contented. As if it had fulfilled its destiny and was now able to lead a life alone.

We never encountered the runaway girl again, though a few days later a new beast joined the troupe. It was led by a child so young it could barely walk. But she kept up with us and when night fell, like the other children, she climbed up her animal, ate some berries and fell sound asleep.

She had her mother’s eyes, this child.

And when she was old enough, she too would be allowed to stand on her own feet, find her own path and burst from her fragile cocoon to blossom into a magnificent, caring beast.

 

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240. Monday

Monday.

They are fighting. The sound of their voices bursts through the dining room ceiling, into our bedroom. Gilly asks me if it will stop. I promise her it will.

 

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223. RUOK?

– RUOK?

– SMH.

– Wot?

– ❤

– OMG

– BF brk up w/ me 2day. E sez e did n cht on me, but e ad iz I on tht *b* Tanya lke 4eva.

– wnt me 2 cum O?

– n, I’m OK.

– RU sure?

– def.

– Rly sure?

– QQ.

– F it. I cum O.

– Ty. But CD9.

– B@TGIF in 10. BFF, 143.

– 1432

***

Keisha’s parents closed the chat room window. Their daughter had just stormed out of the house without saying a word and they were worried. So they did what every parent would do. They opened up her laptop.

“Are those drug codes?” mom asked.

“I wish I knew,“ dad replied.

He truly did. And he realised that invading your daughter’s privacy in the age of txtese was as futile as carrying coal to Newcastle – especially for those that still knew what that particular proverb used to mean.

 

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83. You don’t like Sophie’s fiancée, do you, hon?

“You don’t like Sophie’s fiancée, do you, hon?”

He didn’t so he nodded. Helen put her wristwatch on the bedside table.

“But he seems such a nice boy. He is polite. He has manners. He even kept calling you sir when you told him Pat would be equally fine.”

“That is precisely why I don’t like him,” said Pat. “Don’t you find him… too perfect?”

“Is there such a thing?”

Damn right there is. Pat dunked the false teeth in the water. His tongue licked his upper gums.

“I think you’re just being grumpy. Your little girl is growing up and you can’t stand it.”

“She’s 29, Helen, for God’s sake. I should be relieved she’s finally getting wed!”

“So what’s your problem then?” Helen let the comforting warmth of the blanket embrace her.

“I can’t quite put my finger on it. But something is off. Did you watch him eating his asparagus?”

“He’d never had it before.”

“Exactly! Who has never eaten asparagus in this day and age?”

“Now you’re being silly, hon.”

Pat kissed his wife goodnight and put out the bedside light. He didn’t say a thing for a full minute. But he just couldn’t keep his opinion to himself till the next morning.

“You know, there are times you’d swear he was from another dimension.”

He was. And marrying the most eligible girls in America was just the first phase in his race’s plans to enslave Earth.

 

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