Join Date: Aug 2006
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Chapter 7 - A Bat and a Brother
Chapter 7 – A Bat and a Brother
The child was running between the tombstones in the spring afternoon, trying to catch a grasshopper as it leapt for its life. The large green insect would land between short flights just long enough to lead the child onward in hope of capturing it, before springing away again in low level, but frantic buzzing.
Seeing the bug landing still, the child was now close enough to pounce. Jumping forward, the young girl landed with hands stretched outward, missing the insect by an inch before it flew off again, hopelessly out of reach over the top of the nearby mausoleum.
The girl looked down at her hands in the tall blades of grass, feeling the cold moist soil between her fingers, and then noticed something: flies and gnats buzzing around something by her hands, some dark furry object lay hidden under the broad green blades. Crawling closer, she pulled up the surrounding grass to reveal the decaying remains of a bat. The skin of its head had pulled back in leathery dehydration to reveal tiny teeth and fangs, a smile in death. The fur still looked fresh, as if the creature would take wing again any moment, but bones peeking through the flaky wing skin confirmed it was deceased.
Fascinated, the child picked it up, a wing in each hand, and animated it, flapping the wings in pretend motion. She giggled.
“Isabel! Isabel?”
The child turned around to look at her mother. A fair skinned woman: black hair, thin figure and dark eyes, smiling at her daughter, her only child. The child held up the dead bat to show her mother, and smiled.
“Look mommy!”.
“Aw honey, let’s bury it.”
“No mommy, I want to take it home. I wanna keep it.”
The young mother put a finger to her lips and thought a moment. “Ok sweetheart, but we need to keep it in a box so it won’t smell up your room, ok?”
The child was happy.
“OK mommy, thank you!”
The mother and child, bat in hand, walked back towards the cemetery entrance to the car.
……………
Back at the Victorian mansion, the young father saw the family car pull up the driveway through the large living room window. Hearing the car doors slamming shut, he walked to the foyer and opened one of the large double doors and looked out.
His daughter was running up the walkway, prize proudly held high.
“Look daddy!” The leathery, furry corpse swung wildly with the momentum of the child’s arm, almost looking as if it were trying to escape. He smiled.
“Well! What have you got there?”
“A bat! I am gonna name him Boris!”
The young father greeted the new pet with a friendly smile. “Hello Boris. Now, go find a box to put him in.”
“Yes daddy.” She ran up the grand spiral staircase, footsteps echoing from the old oak wood.
He turned to look at his wife, but…she was gone. Hadn’t he seen her coming up the entryway steps behind his daughter? He closed the door and turned around.
“BOO!” He fell back a step as his wife jumped from behind the door. “Gotcha’ didn’t I?” Her face smiled with victory.
He reached for her, but she stepped back from the foyer into the living room, and ducking behind the thick, richly embroidered drapes, wrapped herself up in mock attempt to camouflage herself, giggling.
He wrapped his arms around her, drapes and all, and pulled her close, face leaning forward to kiss her in punishment. Although captured, she twisted her head to the left and then to the right, slightly backwards, to avoid his advance. But she was smiling still, giggles escaping now and then.
“Whose idea was the bat, yours or hers?”
“All hers! She found it and wanted to bring it home all on her own.”
“Another mouth to feed.” He grumbled. She laughed at his jest. She replied slowly:
“Honey…there really will be another mouth to feed…in about six months!”
He fell silent, looking at her, a smile slowly stretching across his mouth. Now he understood her glow. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his smile, and pulled the drapes over them both…
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