 "Don't
Need Snakes"
(Excerpt)
by David M. Fitzpatrick
I don’t know what they’re called, but
they look like snakes to me. Don’t need snakes. Snakes are bad. I don’t
care what Jenny says. Jenny’s my best friend in the whole world, and I’d
do anything for her. Mostly, she knows lots of grown-up things, so I learn
lots from her. But she says snakes are good and when we grow up we’ll like
them. I don’t like them now and I don’t think I ever will. But all Jenny
can think about is getting old enough to have them for herself. I guess if
she wants that, she should have it.
Bob? Yeah, I like him. It’s just that he
hurts Mommy. I don’t think he means to; he just can’t help it. Every time
he puts his snake in her, she acts funny. Sometimes she moans like it
hurts and sometimes she screams. Usually she just lays there while he
snakes her. I can tell she doesn’t like it. And why would she do something
like that, that she doesn’t like, instead of spending more time with me?
See, I’m a girl and we don’t have snakes.
We have snake holes, though, where snakes go. It’s like your butt hole,
but it’s different, and boys don’t have them. Jenny says her Mommy likes
snakes ‘cuz so many boys put theirs in her Mommy’s snake hole. I think
Jenny just thinks her Mommy likes it, but from what she says, her Mommy
makes all the same sounds mine does, and I know my Mommy doesn’t like it.
So Jenny can’t wait to have snakes in her
hole, but it’s nasty and I don’t want any in mine. I don’t even want to
grow up if things like that are gonna happen. I know I’ll have to grow up,
but when I do, I’ll marry a nice husband who doesn’t have a snake so I
don’t have to worry about it.
Jenny says I’m being a baby for not
liking it, and that every girl should like it and want it. But it gives me
goose bumps thinking about it. Just the thought of a snake like that
sticking in me down there—eww!
No, I didn’t like watching Bob snake my
Mommy like that. But they never knew I watched. Bob always waited til I
was in bed before he did that to her, ‘cuz I think he knew I’d try to stop
him one of these times. I’d sneak out of bed and peek through the bedroom
door and see them. Sometimes he’d snake her outside the bedroom, like on
the living room couch or the on the playroom floor. Once he snaked her on
the kitchen table. It’s sad the way he does that to her, the way he hurts
her. And it keeps her from doing fun things with me...
* *
* * * * * *
*
But this little girl isn't as innocent
as she sounds, and really has strong feelings about her gender not needing
those snakes. To make matters more challenging, Chiaroscuro is a
very small-press endeavor done randomly by some guys who publish whenever
they feel like it, and may or may not have copies for sale. But visit them
anyway, so long as you aren't easily offended,
here.
|
This is a short-short that has offended a few editors
(whenever you have an female child as the protagonist and mention bad
words referring to things like genitalia and menstruation and sex, that
makes a lot of them cower and cringe and never want to look at your work
again), but not the Chiaroscuro folks. They don't give a crap;
they'll publish anything, so long as they like it. My hat is off to them.