Escalate
by Girija Tropp
There are partially used items everywhere. Mam stands at the fridge with an open jar of marmalade, sniffing. She pats the surface down with a spoon already warmed under the hot water tap. Her forehead scrunches. “If you guys aren’t going to eat this stuff, I’m not going to buy it.” Papa throws a dirk at a weathered piece of wood that hasn’t turned into a sculpture; always working out if he is ready to let go. At the kitchen table, I aim for a sunfish with my watercolors. Mostly I get paper mâché. Beside me, my brother makes little farts as he whittles on a pencil but the lead breaks when he tries to draw. “You shouldn’t push so hard,” I say. He is about to hit me but the marmalade kitten comes out the laundry and distracts him. Mam fetches it with one swoop of her overweight hand and starts to put a ribbon around its neck. “No,” I say. “Yes,” says my brother. I stab my paintbrush into his open mouth. Papa tells us, “Children, remember Jesus.” I try to barter my painting for the kitten but that doesn't work. Papa has dissappeared inside his yoga book. As I take our slightly used and giftwrapped presents to the family across the road, I whisper into that kitty’s ear Have a happy life. The evening is icecream. The adults prefer beer. Everyone snuffles and snores before I fall asleep. I dream about crossroads where a little girl in the countryside looks at the city and sees signs that point right or left; she finds a bicycle and pedals towards the university but snakes rise off the ground. When I wake, it is time to go to work. Papa is looking seriously at me from his photograph but Mam has fallen on her face. I wish I’d opened my eyes earlier so I could have had time to think about the meaning of everything. In the bathroom, I pick crystals from the corner of my eyes. Today, I am moving across the corridor to a new office.
Girija Tropp's fiction has been published or is forthcoming in Agni, The Boston Review, Best Australian Stories 2005, Sleepers Almanac 2006, and Fiction International. Her microfiction has appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, elimae, Margin and Café Irreal amongst others. Find her blog at Straight On Juice.