Cruel Kindness

Cruel Kindness

         Her mind was different than the others; she knew it and she liked it. She heard her mother shout for her to come down. Generally she would lie in bed and wait for her mother to come and get her. She knew her mother hated to yell more than necessary, and Evangeline could rely on a good half hour before she gave up and came in, ready to complain about being late or the importance of her social status. She would be thoroughly coated in a type of beauty, which Evangeline could not comprehend as beautiful: pounds of makeup and some ridiculous dress that the whole town would guffaw over for days. Her mother was quite popular, because, in Evangeline's opinion, she wasted her husband's money on reputation. She is all gossip and gaudy getups, Evangeline thought to her self, I little grin appearing on her delicate lips. Evangeline kept an excuse at hand, just in case her mother expected a response to her squealing. Always the same, believable thing; “I didn’t hear you.”
         This morning, she had woken earlier than usual. She had slipped out of bed and dressed herself in the simple, white cotton ruffled, dress she had compromised on when her mother had wanted to dress her in an elaborate pink thing she felt made her look like a cupcake. She had no reason to stay in bed and she was excited to be alone in the store. So she slowly, in no kind of hurry, removed herself from bed and descended to the kitchen. The room was empty and there was no breakfast laid out. Evangeline had made it quite clear that she did not approve of breakfast (though she had only said it to spite her mother who had tried to force her to eat).  She strode into the next room where she could hear her mother’s heals taping on the wood floor.
*          *          *
         Evangeline’s house consisted of eleven rooms: four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a formal dinning room, a study and the store. The store was a large room that extended out from the front of the building, causing the front door to be the entrance and exit for the store, and the main entrance to the residence to be on the side of the building and entering into the dinning room. The store it self was filled up with many trinkets, toys and necessities for people with means. It was the wealthy she liked to prank the most.  She loved watching them fluster like spooked birds and crowd together cackling their opinion of the absurd event to one another. She also enjoyed turning her self into a public spectacle. Causing many onlookers to gawk, gasp, laugh, and reprimand her. Any reaction was welcome, she marveled at how wound up everyone got at her simple performances.
         There were others that shopped at the store, apart from the very rich. There were People of moderate earnings (she called them the middles) and those who had lists of things that had not been paid for. She had found the lists years ago, when she was searching the store for “treasure” (she had been very young).  When there were so many lists that the little paper box, labeled “TABS”, wouldn’t close, she would take the tape and the scissors from their specified compartments. Then she would tape all of the lists together and use the scissors to cut them into a paper doll chain. The little paper people would look sad hanging, tattooed with numbers and letters, from Evangeline’s neck like a scarf. Evangeline left the middles mostly alone, and often, when no one was looking, she would hide lollys in the bags of the ones who could not pay.
*          *          *
         Her mother was pulling on her coat while looking into her hand held mirror, and did not notice Evangeline standing there. She checked her watch. “Oh, that girl is going to make me late,” she said, and sighed, turning to leave the room. Her breath caught when she saw Evangeline standing in the doorway. “Oh! You startled me. Evangeline, I need you to look after the store while I’m at the Phantia’s solstice celebration."
         Her mother chattered on, but Evangeline ignored her. She had already dismissed the idea of looking after the store. She had been looking forward to running the store, but as she looked out the window and squinted in the bright sunlight she felt a longing for the world outside. she strolled past her mother, and stoped at the coat hooks.  She pulled on her white boots and periwinkle blue coat and headed out, her mother franticly squealing behind her. Her mother’s helpless whining annoyed her. She thought about how childish and spoiled her mother was, and as she walked through the store’s front door, she felt glad that she was leaving her.
         She walked swiftly past the front store window and ducked behind some large trashcans. She watched as her mother ran past her hiding spot a few yards and stopped, seemingly realizing that an eleven year old could not have gone so far in a matter of seconds, and must still be back at the house. But by this time, Evangeline was around the house and up a tree. Again she watched her mother who marched back up the street, turned at the trashcans and walked around the perimeter of the house. After scouring the yard she flopped down in a lawn chair and proceeded to look overwhelmed and exhausted. Evangeline stepped down from the tree and walked away from it, the House, and her mother.
*          *          *
         The shops were fully decorated for the summer solstice, yellow and blue streamers, snowflakes and smiling suns. She walked past paying no heed. Something in the air, or maybe just a feeling, made her stop. She felt even more separate from the public today, and in a different way than she usually felt. She was almost afraid. It was like some all-powerful entity had singled her out, But for what? She started forward again; wondering, as she went, whether she would find something, or someone, unusual at the quarries.
*          *          *
         The gypsum quarries lay about half a mile from the center of town and were exceedingly messy. She would, on occasion, spend some time there skipping rocks and possibly swimming in the large pools of collected rainwater. She enjoyed displeasing her mother by getting as dirty as possible. Some times she would find fragments of gypsum in the forgotten pools or even in the sifted rock piles.
          The quarries were empty. She sat on the edge of the little lake and tossed in some pebbles. The sound of the pebbles was a hollow plunking in the clouded pool. She felt uneasy by the water, so she walked to the far side of the quarry and climbed out. She looked to the horizon; the hot yellow desert sun was just above setting. The desert was empty. Not a cactus, not a rock, not a shrub. She squinted, looking far into the distance; there was a pile of bones; nothing but desert and bones.
         A bird screamed as it flew over head, carrying something in its talons, a squiggly black line; it slipped from the bird’s grip and dropped to the desert. Evangeline knew it was a snake, what else would drop all twisty turnny like it was trying to grow arms before it hit, so it could catch its fall.
She guessed it could be dangerous, but did not think on it. The strange, ominous feeling that had been mounting ever since she left the store spurred her on toward the snake. She felt like something momentous was to happen, and she was growing frightened. She scooped the snake into her hands; she thought it could help her, somehow.
She smiled shakily. "Hello friend." she said as she sat down on the warm sand.
The snake, staring deep into her eyes, smelled her once.
Evangeline felt lightheaded as she spoke in a whisper. "Help me, snake. I'm afraid."
The snake slipped forward through the girl's fingers and slowly lifted his head to her neck.