Show-and-Tell

All the other kids had cute little puppies as pets. Some little girls had fuzzy kittens squirming in their arms. Others held goldfish bowls in their careful hands, making sure that the fish inside was going to stay inside the water. Birds squawked from their perch on the owner’s shoulder or arm. Hamsters, mice, or other rodents were squeaking in their cages. Today was a special day in the kindergarten room of Ms. Jones. She allowed all of her students with pets to bring them to school to show them off to the rest of the class. Those who didn’t have pets were allowed to bring anything else that they wanted to. No one felt left out today, and she was glad to see the small children giddy with excitement of all the animals in the class.

Well, all except one little girl. The girl’s name was Annie. Normally one would think that a little girl with such a sweet name would be the most lovable, kindest, most perfect little angel that you could ever meet, right? Well, that wasn’t exactly Annie Marrow’s case. She was a quiet little girl who always forced herself to be excluded from the rest of the students in her grade. Her blonde hair was nearly white, and held up in two wavy pigtails on each side of her head. She wore the same kind of attire every day: some kind of black and white dress with shiny black Mary Janes, and black and white socks that reached her knees. She was a thin little girl and very bony—like she wasn’t fed properly. Whenever Ms. Jones asked if things were okay at home, the little girl would look at her with hauntingly dark-colored eyes and smile sweetly. She never spoke a word, but it wasn’t that she couldn’t. She just chose not to.

The other children of the class tended to give Annie her space. They automatically seemed to form a bubble around her if she was caught in the middle of a crowd. They left her alone while she was on the very last swing of the swingset. They inched away from her if they happened to be close by. Despite the loneliness that the girl went through every day of her life, she never seemed sad about it, and she always looked like she was content with being alone.

Ms. Jones did a quick head check of her children in the gym—she didn’t want any messes in her classroom—to make sure that none of them were left behind. She frowned when she came up short by one, but felt the problem fixed as soon as tiny Annie could be seen in a shadowy corner with a covered object sitting next to her. That object seemed to be in a little red wagon to be transported around. Ms. Jones sighed at the little girl’s total lack of interaction. She walked over to the little girl with her heels clicking on the gym floor. When she was standing in front of the curled up girl, she peered at her through her glasses with a soft smile curving her lips.

“Hello Annie,” Ms. Jones greeted. All she got was wide eyes staring at her and a tiny smile. “Aren’t you going to join the other students and play with your pets?” Annie closed her eyes and delicately shook her head from side to side. Ms. Jones sighed, but didn’t give up. “What’s under this blanket Annie?”

Ms. Jones reached out a finely manicured hand to grab the white sheet, but found her wrist in the vice-like grip of Annie’s small, bony fingers. The grip she held on the teachers arm was surprisingly strong, even though the little girl tended to remind one of a walking skeleton. Ms. Jones looked at Annie with fear creeping into her eyes. Annie’s head was tilted to the side slightly, and a creepy smile slowly crept up on her. With her free hand, she put her index finger to her lips as if to say, “It’s a surprise.”

Annie let go of the teacher’s hand and returned both of her arms around her knees. Her eyes wandered over to the group of laughing and smiling children. Her eyes started to glaze over with thought. Ms. Jones slowly backed away from the girl before walking to the children to start the festivities of sharing their pets.

Ms. Jones let the children chose when they wanted to go. A lot of the students would say the same things about their pets and how much they loved them. Some of the pets were passed around to pet or let loose from their bindings to run around and lick other kids’ faces. The happiness of all her other students made Ms. Jones forget all about Annie and her odd—ever odder than before—behavoir.

After a cute puppy shown off and brought back into the crowd of kindergarteners, Ms. Jones walked up to the “stage” with a smile on her face.

“Wow, what such wonderful pets we’ve seen today!” she exclaimed. The kids cheered in agreement. “Who else do we have left to share?”

The kids looked around to see who else still had to go, but none of them raised their hand to volunteer. Ms. Jones opened her mouth to finish up the long day of show and tell when she saw a thin arm shoot up into the air from the very back of the large gymnasium. There, little Annie was already rising to her feet and grabbing the handle of the wagon next to her. It was a long walk from where she was sitting, and the little girl took her sweet time getting there. The other children were oddly silent while Annie and her creaking red wagon walked up to the class group. The children didn’t start whispering, or even squirming around at having to wait in the silence. It was like they knew that if they did break the quietness that settled like a fog, something bad would happen. It took several minutes before Annie was standing next to Ms. Jones at the “stage”.

Annie slowly craned her neck to look up at her teacher with that eerie smile on her face.

Ms. Jones cleared her throat nervously and looked to her other students. “Well, let’s all sit quietly while Annie shows us…erm…what she brought to school today.”

Ms. Jones hastily shuffled to her chair and sat down. She motioned to Annie to start her presentation of her…pet?

Annie looked out to her classmates and started her staging with a tiny voice—despite it being so quiet it held much authority, “Hello. My name is Annie Alexandria Marrow. This”—she pulled the wagon so it was perfectly parallel with her—“is my pet, Max.”

One of the students raised their hand hesitantly. Annie nodded towards him.

“Why’s he under a blanket? Is he sleeping?” he asked.

“He’s under this blanket because I wanted to surprise everyone,” Annie stated with a slight giggle. She said it as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.

Without another word, Annie grasped the white sheet and ripped it away from what it was covering. The children gasped, and some of the girls screamed out loud at what was revealed. Sitting awkwardly in the little red wagon was a teenage boy. But not a regular one. His lanky legs were placed oddly so he could fit in the wagon, and his knees were hiding his face from the crowd. When he realized that he was being presented, he moved his knees apart to look out at all of the children sitting on the floor. His skin was a greenish tiny as if he was rotting, and one of his brightly colored eyes—the one that was present was a beautiful sea blue—was missing from the socket. The clothes he wore were dirty and tattered like he had been buried, and his black hair was so messy that it looked like it would break a comb if one tried to fix it. Clumps of dirt clung to the boy, and when he smiled he showed rotting gums and teeth.

“It’s a zombie!” one of the little girls screamed, her voice high-pitched.

Anyone who hadn’t screamed yet did, and the children jumped to their feet and started to try and run out of the gym. Annie whipped her hand into the air and all the escapes slammed shut and locked. One of the stronger boys of the class pulled and tugged at the door with all his might, and even had help from several friends. The door didn’t budge a single bit.

Ms. Jones ran in front of her huddled and crying class as Annie walked over to them. Her “pet” was following her on his leash like he was an obedient dog.

“I’ve had Max for all of my life,” she continued her show and tell as if nothing had changed. “He’s my best friend—my only friend. Max never ever hurts me, he promised me so when I was first born and reminds me ever night before I go to sleep with him next to me.” Going along with the other children’s examples, she continued. “Max really likes to play outside with me in our backyard. He says it’s his favorite thing to do. He tells me stories of when he was “really alive” as he says. I really, really like them.”

Annie pulled Max next to her, and Ms. Jones realized that he had a disembodied arm in his grasp and was nibbling on one of the fingers. Blood dripped down his chin messily. Annie tugged him down to her eye level and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his messy chin. He grinned and kissed her on the forehead for her kindness before standing upright and continuing his snack.

“Max’s favorite food is human,” Annie said cutely, looking up at him with adoration. “But we can’t feed him well. Mommy says that we can’t feed him well because of “poverty.” I don’t know what that means though. But I thought that maybe if I bring him to school, I can finally give him a proper snack.”

Annie’s voice cracked with sadness when she explained how she couldn’t take care of Max. Ms. Jones actually felt sorry for her for a second before Annie took a deep breath and forced her teary eyes to look to the crowd of her classmates.

“All I want is to give Max everything he needs,” she whispered just loud enough for everyone else to hear. The tears in her eyes slipped down her cheeks when her eyes closed. “You all understand that.”

Annie pulled Max down to a crouch once more and fiddled with his collar. Everyone waited in silent fear they watch the girl fumble with the leash. Finally, they heard a click, and Max slowly rose to his feet, free from the restraint he was previously held on. He touched where the collar he wore would hook with the leash as if to make sure that it really wasn’t there. His eye darted to the terrified and trembling bunch of students with a hungry gaze.

“Run,” Ms. Jones whispered to the children. They all screamed and ran in all sorts of directions. Max smiled and started the game of cat and mouse. Meanwhile, Annie watched the scene lovingly. She finally felt secure in the fact that she was take care of her Max properly. She knew that he was really happy right now.