Through the Crack in the Fence

Told from the point of view of a child, this very short story exposes the importance of secrets, and a childlike wisdom.

Today she’s eating something with raisins in it
and sitting on a stone.
I think there must be an anthill under her foot. There are lots of ants in her backyard.
(Sometimes dad talks about that.
Mom always makes him stop, so he does.)
I feel sad for the ants trapped under her foot away from their friends
and also from the light.

I hope she drops a raisin and forgets about it so they can have it later when they’re free.

But I know she won’t.
She never makes a mess.
Even though she eats there every night.

Nobody believed me when I told them at first. Well Brent didn’t believe me. But Amanda didn’t care, Todd was picking a scab on his knee, and Nathan didn’t say anything.
So that pretty much means the same thing.

So I made them come see through the crack in my fence.
But all they cared about was how all the grass in her yard was yellow and how all her flowers were dead.

Todd said she freaked him out. A little bit.
Brent said she was an old witch who killed things for fun.
Nathan said, “There’s no colour in her yard.”
And then Brent and Todd tried to push him over the fence and Amanda screamed and now she’s not allowed to come over any more.

Which is okay.

Later Brent told me that you can’t ever let the lady know that you see her.
Because they say she makes things shrivel up. Just by noticing them.

But sometimes I see her stare at a dead leaf until it turns into a moth and flies over the fence into my yard.
Which I sometimes get distracted by.
And then I forget to be quiet.

But she never notices.
Or at least I don’t think she does.
Because I’m still as unshrivelled as I think I’m supposed to be.

Sometimes I lose track of the moth though.
I told Todd, who told me it probably turned back into a leaf after it escaped the Dragon Lady’s yard.

I don’t know why we call her that.
She’s very small
and only a little bit scaly.
Everything about her is more yellow than green.
She really reminds me more of an armadillo.
But no one else thought Armadillo Lady was scary enough.

I said I thought an armadillo-human would be plenty scary, and also more accurate.

Then Todd said “Tracy’s afraid of armadillos!” and everyone laughed except for Nathan.

Nathan is a very serious boy.
He only smiles sometimes.
    Which is a lot more than an armadillo, by the way.

Later he told me he thought an anything-human would be plenty scary too, and also that he liked how I said “plenty scary” instead of “very scary”.

I told him that I wondered how the lady could stand all the dead things in her yard every day.
I thought that if I could only see prickly grass and stubs of weeds all the time, I would feel tired and sad and less alive myself.

Nathan thought about that.
And then he said, “Maybe being around the deadness makes her feel more alive than being around things that can move faster than she can…” And then he added “And be louder.”

I thought about that.
Then I smiled and said “I like you, Nathan.”
But then he blushed and I didn’t understand why.
So I went back to the fence.

I can only see her if I sit very quietly in the corner of my yard
On the grey side of the playset
And press my face against the crack in the fence.

I think that even if she ever did notice me,
She wouldn’t make me shrivel.
But she might say
“DAMN KIDS”
Like the man who
used to water the flowers there
Used to say.

But I don’t think she can see as far as I can.

So I’m safe.

Reviews

[Distant horizons]

She can see you.I had a scary old neighbour once , she freaked me out for no reason at all. This reminded me of her. great write.