MalContents by Randy Ryan C.; Chandler Gregory L.; Thomas David T.; Norris Wilbanks Read Free Book Online

kiss me. He did kiss my fingertips. I think he did. It happened so fast, I’m still not sure. But I’ve always believed he did.
    Then he said, “I’m coming to the carnival tonight. Sure as God made green apples and pretty girls.”
    I melted. On the inside. On the outside I was the cute little Wolf Girl but on the inside I was a full-grown female with raging needs. A she-wolf in high heat. I couldn’t wait for the night to come.
    Night came. So did Jerry Ezekiel Conner. At the last minute, I balked. I didn’t want him to see me do my Wolf Girl act. He already saw me as his cute little pet and I didn’t want to collar up and do my growling, snapping and pawing routine like a wild animal on a leash—which was exactly how the talker presented me every night. For the first time in my tiny little life I cared how somebody saw me. And I wanted him to see me as a young lady, not as a low belly-crawling mutt. I wished then that I’d told Jerry not to come to the carnival. Sure, he was smart enough to know my wild Wolf Girl was an act but I didn’t want him to see me that way at all. What difference it would make in the long run didn’t matter. I was just a kid with a crush on a townie I’d probably never see again. But that was why I did care. I cared with the heart of a kid.
    So I faked being sick and refused to do my little show. Boss Bizzle made me stick out my tongue and felt my forehead to see if I was feverish. Of course, he couldn’t tell, what with all the fur on my face. But he wasn’t a slave driver so he let me off and sent me to bed. All I really had was a severe case of puppy-love fever.
    I got Zelda to bring Jerry to our trailer before he bugged out for the night without getting to see his little pet. He came in timid as could be, hat in his hand and walking like he had feathers in his shoes. Nobody had ever treated me with such regard and I nearly made a puddle of melt right then and there.
    “You ain’t really sick, are you?” he asked.
    I shook my head. Smiled real big. I sat on the bottom bunk and patted a spot beside me. He slunk like a trained bear across the creaky floor and sat, hat hanging between his legs sort of like a shield.
    I already had two words on the chalkboard. I gave it to him so he could read them: “Kiss me?”
    He grinned shyly. All but said, “Aw shucks.” And he leaned over and kissed my lips. Just a quick smack. But I grabbed him and pulled him back for a more serious kiss. Things went the way I wanted them to from that point and the love we made was the sweetest you can imagine. The only sour note came when I picked up the mean message from the monster in the jar, telling me I should claw Jerry’s eyes and rip out his throat with my teeth. It was a dirty voice in my head, all whispery and deep, bullying me to bloodshed. The thing was brutal in its commands. But I was strong. I didn’t give in to those urges. It was shocking to find out the thing could reach me as far away as my trailer but the tender sex greased and eased the shock and I soon put the evil jar-thing out of my mind.
    We lay together a long time after we were done. It was then that the evil thing slipped back in and whispered the wickedest things to me. It told me that Jerry was nothing but a cow-fucking farmboy who fucked sheep and pigs as well as his own cow-eyed sister, that I was just another piece of creature ass and nothing more. It told me I was foolish to think this was anything like real love because it wasn’t and I didn’t deserve to know real love and never would on account of I was just a dumb animal, God’s own freak. Something God made for laughs when He got bored with sending angels to smite the shit out of stupid evildoers. Be smart , it said. Pure evil is smart enough to have its way and live another day .
    When I heard that in my head, I rose up and hustled my young lover out of that jungle buggy before I had a change of heart and tried to kill him. I was very short and even rude to