Imperfect Endings by Zoe FitzGerald Carter

Author:Zoe FitzGerald Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

Silver Dagger

SPRING 1967

We were playing Riding School with three large wooden sawhorses in the backyard when my mother came around the house looking cross.

“Girls! I just got a call from someone down on Newark Street. They’ve got Puppy and Bowser. They found them knocking over garbage cans. Which one of you let them out?”

We turned and looked at the gate that led out to Ordway Street. It was standing wide open. The three of us had been in and out of it numerous times to pick cherries off the tree that grew on the bank outside the yard.

“Katherine? Hannah? C’mon now. Whoever let them out has to go get them—now! I have the address right here.”

I had no idea when the dogs left, but I remembered seeing Hannah’s dog, Bowser, sniffing something down by the front sidewalk. Had I let them out?

But my mother wasn’t looking at me. They were not my dogs. I couldn’t get a dog until next year when I turned eight. It wasn’t my fault.

“Hannah, you know you let them out,” Katherine said in her bored, it’s-all-the-same-to-me voice. “So you better run and get them.”

“Oh God, Katherine, you’re such a liar!” Hannah yelled, turning to glare at her. “If anyone let them out, it was you. Besides, Bowser wouldn’t run away if Puppy didn’t go first. You go get them.” Hannah’s dark curly hair was plastered to her pale face and there was dirt and cherry juice on her chin. We’d been playing for several hours and for once, Hannah and Katherine had been getting along.

Katherine just looked at Hannah, her eyes half-closed, smiling her bored smile and tossing one of her long blond braids behind her shoulder.

My mother watched this, looking deeply annoyed.

“Zoe?” she said, turning to me, her voice less angry. “You tell me. Which one of them let the dogs out?”

My face felt stiff and hot and I could sense both my sisters staring at me. I hated it when my mother did that, made me tell her what happened after they got in a fight or broke something or let the dogs out. But I was the one she trusted, the good one. The one who told the truth.

Except she was wrong, I wasn’t good—or truthful. I wanted to tell her this, but I knew she’d be disappointed. So I pretended I was good so she would love me the best and think I was special.

“Um, I th-think it was Hannah,” I said, looking at the ground, bracing myself for Hannah’s wails. “But I’ll go help you get them,” I added quickly, looking over at Hannah, hoping she would understand. Telling on Katherine was out of the question.

“Good girl, Zoe.” My mother was pleased with me. “That’s very nice of you.”

I watched Hannah stalk out of the yard. I wanted to run after her, tell her I was sorry, but I didn’t.

“So you want to play some more?” Katherine asked. She was also pleased with me.

“No thanks,” I replied. I didn’t feel like playing.

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