The Exotics: Tigerlilly (A Short Story)
By De Kenyon
Copyright © 2011 by De Kenyon
Published by Wonderland Press at Smashwords
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Table of Contents:
After Rachael’s friend doesn’t return on the first day of second grade, she asks her mother to find her new address so they can be pen pals. But Rachael’s mother can’t find Brenna’s family anywhere: it’s like they were erased. And it’s a lot like what happened to her mother’s friend Lilly in second grade...except that Lilly is dead, and her mother won’t talk about it. Rachael’s mother has secrets...but Rachael’s going to find out.
Rachael’s best friend from first grade, Brenna, wasn’t there on the first day of second grade, so she asked her teacher, Mrs. Sorensen, where Brenna was, but Mrs. Sorensen didn’t know either. She didn’t even know who Brenna was. When Rachael asked her classmates, most of them couldn’t even remember her.
It was like a nightmare she had dreamed once, where her parents vanished when the bad guy erased their names off a list. As soon as he had finished erasing and brushing the last pieces of eraser off the paper, they were gone. “You will be alone …forever!” It was an evil laugh, and she had woken up crying.
On her way home from the first day of school, Rachael asked her mother, “What happens when you die? Is it like being erased?”
Her mother gave her a weird look. “No,” she said after a while. “I don’t know if anyone really knows what happens. But you don’t just…disappear. Your body’s left behind, whatever happens to the rest of you.”
“Oh, good,” Rachael said. “Because Brenna wasn’t at school today, and I was worried that her name got erased and that she died when it did.”
Her mom gave her another weird look, this time a sad one. “When people die, it’s a little bit like they’re erased,” she said. “They’re gone, and you miss them, and you can’t do anything about it.”
They stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the light to change, then waited for the crossing guard lady to walk ahead of them into the street, holding her stop sign high and looking crossly (her mother had said that the reason they were called crossing guards was that they looked cross, or angry) at all the cars. Rachael had once seen the crossing guard lady slap the top of a car that had tried to sneak by her when it wasn’t supposed to. But not this time.
She and her mother walked across the street, and Rachael said, “Is Brenna dead or not?”
“I don’t know,” her mother said. “I mean, I doubt it, but I haven’t heard from them since school got out. I’ll find out…but I have to warn you, she’s probably moved far away. That’s usually what happens when people don’t show up at school all of a sudden.”
“That’s okay,” Rachael said. “Then she can be my pen pal.” They were supposed to be pen pals with someone at another school this year anyway.
She didn’t have any homework ( yay!), so her mother let her play her zombie game until bedtime. Her father gave her kisses, then her mother. As her mother was kissing her, she asked, “Did you find Brenna yet?”
“No,” said her mother, sounding puzzled. “I had her last name and phone number written down for your birthday invitation list last year and everything. But now it’s like…like she disappeared. I’m still looking.”
Her mother kissed her again, but Rachael had nightmares about the eraser man anyway.
***
Fortunately, her other friend, Makayla, was still at her school, even if she did get moved to the other teacher’s classroom.
Makayla wasn’t a hugger or a smiler, but she was a good player of just about any game that Rachael could imagine. If Rachael wanted to pretend they were racing horses, Makayla would find the right kind of sticks to ride. If she wanted to shoot zombies, Makayla would know what kind of guns to pretend to use (shotguns) and the best place for them to hide from zombies at school (the janitor’s office). Without Brenna, though, they didn’t have enough people or enough imaginations (and Brenna was perfect at telling everyone else the story of their adventures later), and the other girls just thought they were weird.
The girls weren’t as bad as the boys, though. The boys pretended she and Makayla had germs. Girl germs.
“I don’t have girl germs,” Rachael yelled at them during their combined recess. “I have zombie germs. And I’m going to eat your brains!”
The boys all screamed and ran, laughing about girl germs being worse than zombie germs, except for one person: the new boy.
His name was Raul, and he picked up a handful of wood chips from the playground and threw them toward her, missing by a mile. “Die, zombie!” he yelled, then turned around and climbed up the jungle gym. When she tried to chase him up the bars, he aimed his foot at her. “I’ll stomp on you, zombie,” he warned.
Makayla looked back and forth between them. If Rachael was the zombie and Raul was the human trying to escape from the zombie, what should she be? Rachael wasn’t sure what she’d pick.
Rachael moaned, shuffled through the wood chips, and circled the jungle gym with her arms out. “Braaaaaiiiiins …”
Makayla timed it so Rachael was on the opposite side, then made a flying leap onto the bars. “You been bit?” she asked Raul.
“No,” Raul said, making it sound like he thought Makayla was stupid for asking.
“Then let’s get outta here,” Makayla said.
Raul snorted. “I don’t need no girl’s help.”
“I ain’t a girl, I’m a ranger.” She pretended to take out a shotgun, check the shells, and cock the gun while saying ch-chuck. “Now come on, unless you want to get eaten. She’ll eat you as soon as look at you. I’ve seen her do it. But she can’t get you, as long as you don’t touch the ground.”