Nightmare Magazine, Issue 113 (February 2022) by Wendy N. Wagner

Author:Wendy N. Wagner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adamant Press
Published: 2022-01-26T22:33:04+00:00

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Chapter One

Izabel moved through her morning routine. She poured Cami’s juice into a sippy cup. It was “spill-proof,” but that didn’t mean it didn’t leak. Izabel wedged it beside containers of snacks in Cami’s lunchbox. She zipped it up and put it in Cami’s backpack, which had flaps of fabric on the side to look like elephant ears. The trunk was embroidered on the front. Black plastic eyes had been sewn in until they were flush.

Then the shower turned off. The water stopped running through the pipes in the concrete slab beneath her. She knew Kaito was patting himself down with a towel, but she couldn’t hear that. Instead, she heard the cars outside. One of her neighbors was playing music. Sometimes she felt as if she could hear every neighbor through their plastic walls.

Kaito would be stepping out of the bedroom soon. If she timed it right, the three of them would be in the kitchen together as they got ready for the day. Not that she didn’t want to be alone with Cami, only that she preferred not to be.

She broke off an oversized banana, cut it in half, and left it where Cami sat at the island. Then she poured soy milk into a bottle and took it with her into Cami’s room.

“Good morning, honey,” Izabel said. Cami didn’t move.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up.” This time she put her hand on Cami’s leg.

Cami’s eyes furrowed.

“I have your milk. Do you want your milk?”

Cami’s eyes popped open and then closed again, and then she rolled them open—with great effort it seemed—and the whites of her eyes were slightly pink.

“Good morning, mi amorcito.”

“Hi, Mommy.”

Izabel handed her the bottle of milk. She was four, but she insisted on bottles still. And Izabel couldn’t bring herself to care.

Cami sat up and drank, eyes closed again.

When Izabel tried to leave, Cami pulled at her. So Izabel turned her body to face the same direction as Cami, and she let Cami lean back into her. It was a lovely, peaceful moment. One she got to have every morning. She chided herself for spending it, mostly, thinking of what she had to do next.

She pulled herself away. “We don’t want to be late.” She went to the bins of Cami’s clothes and picked out an outfit for the day.

Cami held out the empty bottle. “Are you done with it?”

Cami nodded, awake now, alert, a little animal.

“Then you know what to do with it. You know where it goes.”

Cami ran out of the room and put the bottle by the kitchen sink.

“What’s next?” Izabel asked, following her.

“Teeth brushing!”

“Good morning,” Kaito said, stepping into the kitchen. “Daddy!” Cami ran into his arms, and he scooped her up and kissed her twice on the cheek.

“Better go brush your teeth,” he said.

In the bathroom, Izabel put toothpaste on both of their toothbrushes as Cami peed in the toilet.

“Can you wipe yourself? Do you know what to do next?”

“I know!”

Izabel brushed her teeth while she watched Cami.

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