6 minute read
Snakes Holly Brantley
from Windhover Vol. LV
by Windhover
Holly Brantley Snakes
When I was a little girl, it was rumored that I was a child of Satan because I wasn’t afraid of snakes.
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Aurora glanced at me and frowned. “Don’t even think about it.”
I shot her a look, huddling closer to her as the cool March air bit at my bare legs. “Think about what?”
“You know what.” Aurora jerked her head over to the part of the schoolyard where the boys were playing marbles. “I’ve already told you that you’re just making it worse.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because Emmy, you’re a girl.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with it.”
“And that’s exactly why you don’t need to go over there.”
“All I’m doing is playing marbles with them,” I argued. “I’m good at it and they’re sweet to me when I play.”
Aurora sucked her cheeks in. “That’s because they’re looking up your dress when you play, Emmy. That’s why they’re sweet.”
I felt the heat rising to my face. At 12 years old, there was nothing more mortifying to me than the prospect of boys looking up my dress.
I’d never noticed the boys trying to sneak a peek before, but Aurora was fourteen, an adult in my eyes, and so I took her word as Gospel.
“No, they don’t,” I said, pulling down the hem of my lavender dress as far as it would go. “Jamie wouldn’t let them.”
“Jamie looks up your dress, too.”
“No, he doesn’t!”
The corners of Aurora’s lips twitched upwards. “Does too.”
I unhooked my arm from hers and crossed them over my chest. “Why are you being so mean?”
“I’m not being mean, I’m being honest,” Aurora replied, eyes darting to where Marigold Hawthorne and Pollyanna Matthews were standing and gossiping. “Now, go find something to do, and don’t you try butting in and trying to help when—”
“If you’re going to your friends then I’m going to mine,” I said, standing my ground. “And if Cora were here, she’d go play marbles with me, too.”
Aurora rolled her eyes. “If Cora jumped off of a bridge, would you?”
I squinted and stuck my hands in my pockets, turning from her. “Cora’s scared of heights, Aurora. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Aurora rolled her eyes one more time at me before going off to join Marigold and Pollyanna. I headed to where Josiah Hammond, Bobby Brewster, and Jamie Arlo were. At this age, boys were as devoted to marbles as a priest was to his parish. Normally, I stood just close enough to the chalk-drawn circle that they crowded around for them to notice me. If Cora were here, she’d just ask if we could play, but she’d been missing a lot of school lately. Her momma was fixing to have another baby and, since Cora was the oldest, her momma really needed her help around the house.
“Do you want to play, Emmy?”
I looked up and my eyes met Jamie Arlo’s. He was smiling at me, but it took me a minute to smile back once I noticed that his lip was busted. Though the evidence of Mr. Arlo’s abuse of Jamie was always painfully apparent, it was especially bad right around planting and harvesting season, when Mr. Arlo was most stressed. Last week Jamie’d been taking off his coat when his shirt rode up and I saw fresh welts all along the bottom half of his back. Jamie didn’t like it when we asked about his injuries, so I didn’t say anything and just smiled instead, crouching next to him in front of the circle.
“You can get on next round,” Josiah Hammond said, giving me a genuine smile before shooting a look to Bobby Brewster. “Once I win the Aggie back, you can use that.”
I shook my head and grinned. “I don’t like the Aggie. I want to use the Dragonfly.”
“You’ll have to take that up with Jamie, then. He won it last round.”
Jamie grinned at me. “You can have the Dragonfly if you let me copy your science theme.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not letting you cheat, but I’ll help you with your theme.”
“Deal.”
Bobby shook his head, pointing an accusatory finger at Jamie. “You can’t just give her a marble! She’s got to earn it in the game!”
“Lay off, Bobby,” Josiah retorted. “He can give her a marble if he wants to.”
“Just because she’s a girl—”
“Leave her alone,” Jamie said, digging through his red marble pouch. “She’s better than you are, and if she won’t so nice, she’d probably have half of your marbles.”
“Ain’t nobody supposed to be giving away marbles,” Kevin Valentine sneered.
The four of us looked up to see a group of older boys, led by Kevin Valentine, staring down at us. There were only three of them, but it felt like a lot more. Kevin was in eighth grade, but he already had his driver’s license and I could tell that the other two boys with him weren’t that much younger.
“Nobody’s giving away marbles,” Josiah said, squinting up at Kevin, “and even if we were, it ain’t any of your business.”
Kevin Valentine snorted. “It’s my business if I say it’s my business.”
“Why do you even care?” Jamie asked, standing up. At 13 years old, Jamie wasn’t that much shorter than Kevin, but he was noticeably skinnier. “Don’t you got anything better to do?”
Kevin smirked, kicking the marbles inside of the circle and making them scatter. “You’re a priority right now, Arlo. Don’t get used to it.”
“I was about to win the Aggie!” Josiah snapped, standing up next. He glared at Kevin. “Just because you can’t be a jackass to someone your own size doesn’t mean you can get away with it here!”
Unlike Jamie, who at least had height going for him, Josiah was neither tall nor big. In fact, he was just barely taller than me, and I’d always been small for my age. Kevin Valentine took a step toward Josiah, nostrils flaring, when Jamie stepped in between the two of them.
“He’s right,” Jamie said, giving Kevin Valentine a look. “Go pick on someone your own size.”
“Don’t pretend like you’re better than me, Arlo,” Kevin Valentine spat. “At least I passed first grade.”
Jamie’s fists tightened by his side. “After the fourth try.”
“Come on,” I said, jumping up the second I saw Kevin Valentine’s hand pulling back. “Come on, I’m going to help you with your theme.”
Kevin Valentine smirked again, his hands relaxing. “And now you’ve got your girlfriend sticking up for you? That’s pathetic, even for an Arlo.”
Jamie’s cheeks flushed. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Sure, she isn’t.” Kevin shrugged. “After talking with your brother, it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve got a little girl sticking up for you.”
At this point, most of the kids around us had stopped to watch. While Kevin Valentine didn’t have a lick of common sense, he tended to know the most dirt on people.
Jamie’s face turned even redder. “Daniel knows even less than you do.”
“You’re a walking piece of shit,” Josiah continued angrily, thrusting his finger in the middle of Kevin Valentine’s stomach since he couldn’t quite reach his chest. “You think you can—”
“Quit it!” I hissed, yanking Josiah’s arm back. “You’re making it worse!”
Kevin Valentine didn’t even seem fazed and kept his gaze on Jamie. “Tell all your little friends how you busted your lip. Tell ‘em how your old man beat you because you got scared when that snake got loose in the hog pen,” Kevin sneered, his eyes darting from Jamie to me. “You ran up out of the hog pen when you saw that snake. You ran like a scared little girl.”
“That’s called being smart!” Josiah argued, practically foaming at the mouth. “If you saw some snake that was ’bout to bite you and kill you—”
Kevin scoffed. “It won’t no poisonous snake. It was a stupid garden snake, and when his daddy made him pick it up, he started crying. Daniel said he thought you might’ve even wet your pants.”
