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dispatch eight
Three Little Stories by Amelia Gray
debuted 15 July 2009 | kept 1492 times | click to keep
Diana
Diana lit a fire in the pit between them, and their clothes immediately smelled like woody smoke. Diana spoke: "You know how when you go camping, and you smell like this for days, inside your nose?"
"Gross," said Glenda, tamping down the snow under her heels.
People dressed in animal suits danced around the periphery. It was difficult to see them. Perhaps they were animals dressed as people, with garish animal cloaks over their costumes. Anything seemed possible in the campfire's light.
"It's as if the smell is pasted inside your nose," said Diana.
"That's so gross."
Glenda had a square face and loved Jesus, two facts that essentially made her unlovable as far as Diana was concerned. At the corner of her eye, a jackal dressed as a man dressed as a polar bear mounted a seedling fruit tree and howled. It seemed like Glenda didn't see what was going on, or else she was too absorbed in the image her fingernails made against her winter coat, ruby, white, ruby white, blood on the snow.
A young man came out of the house and stood next to Diana. "Nice fire," he said.
Diana regarded the young man. She noted the condition of his skin and his teeth. She estimated how fast he would run if chased, how much faster if she had a bow. She pictured him falling over a hidden patch of nettles, landing poorly, palms down in the snow. The young man's face was ringed with dancing animals, two does and a vixen.
The young man walked over to Glenda on the other side of the fire pit. "Nice fire," he said.
"Thanks," said Glenda. "I made it myself."
"Priss," Diana said.
"You only lit it."
"We didn't start the fire," the man said. The women turned to him.
"Actually," Diana said, "We did start the fire. Since the world was turning."
"Creep," added Glenda.
In the garden, an oversized owl chased three shrieking lady barnmice. He caught one and devoured her with efficiency and aplomb.