• He hoped the tape recorder would still work. it was
    one of thoses small portable ones often used in
    schools or libraries. Teddy didn't even realise the
    irony of his action-Angie was in fact the one who had
    bought it for him. He wiped the hair and blood off
    the crner and released a sigh of frustration. "Mother
    will probally ground me from watching the
    television," he cnsidered, looking to the mess he had
    made.
    Damn her. Damn them all. Why did she have to
    hurt Peg? Why?" Balefully, he kicked the corpse
    beside him. Her glazed eyes stared back at him with
    empty fascination. "You b***h. You killed Peg."
    His sister's dead look gave no response. (He
    wondered why.) Her face loked so shadowed. He lifted
    her head up by her clotted hair and saw that it was
    dried blood on her cheek that created the mock
    shadow. He saw, too, that the dent in her skull had
    stopped gushing; the congulated blood had formed a
    gelatinous plug.
    Mother would be home soon. He would have to dig
    a grave.
    Teddy got up and walked to his bedroom where
    peg's plastic body lay deflated. atop her bloodless
    chest was a kitchen knife and she stared at the
    ceiling with her permanent expression-mouth in the
    shape of an O. She looked as if she would scream.
    He picked up the Doll's head and looked
    tearfully at the flat terrain of her airless, lifesized
    figure. cradling her head, he began to cry each
    tear held a thousand wishes to bring her back. He was
    glad Angie was dead-she had deserved every last blow.
    As Teddy stroked her artifical hair he noticed the
    stench coming from his sister who lay several feet
    away. He knew it was urine-he had heard her bladder
    release when he had struck the final deadly blow. He
    had hit her once more for good measure-she had killed
    Peg. He had every right.
    Carefully, he let Peg's head rest on the carpet.
    Bending down, he kissed her cheek and whiped ssome
    stick stuff from her rubber lip. Mom had told him
    before not to to touch Peg or to make the nasty in
    her mouth, but he coudn't help it. He loved her to
    much just to leave her be. If Mom found out he was
    doing the nasty then she would take Peg away, like
    before-he would have to find her too.
    As Teddy went back to Angie's body he stopped
    for a moment to marvel at her nudity. He had always
    watched her dress from the closet, but he had never
    seen her thing up close. He was fascinated by the
    dark tuft of hair between her legs-Peg didn't have
    that. Cautiously he touched her touched her thigh,
    and jerked away as if her flesh were red hot. It
    wasn't, though. In fact, she was starting to get
    cold. It had been four hours
    "I hate you," he informed her cadaver eyes.
    Again he touuched her thigh, but this time he
    didn't pull away. Gently, he ran his fingertips up
    her hip and towards her crotch. With the other hand,
    he pulled her muscled legs apart. Between them was a
    puddle if urine the size of a pancake. He gave her
    genitals a curious poke. She was much softer than
    Peg, and warm-although her body was cold and pallid,
    she was warm inside. He was getting excited by her
    macabre sexual divintity.
    He had to stop-Mother would be upset if he was
    doing the nasty; Dad had found that out the hard way.
    All she like was sewing and watching Family feud. She
    loved that Richard Dawson guy.
    But she was so yielding, so doughy. Peg's skin
    was hard and waxy inside-he'd had her for ten years
    (when he was eighteen he ordered her from a dirty
    magazine). Angie was only fve then, and now she had
    matured into a beautiful young woman. He really
    didn't hate ter that much but she shouldn't have
    killed Peg. He was nly watching her shower. It was
    nothing new. But she would have told Mother, Mother
    couldn't stand for that kind of filth in her house.
    Thats why he had to hide Peg in the first place.
    Mother was so old-fashioned; he had to hide alot from
    mother.
    Going to the garage, he fetched a spade and
    began digging in the garden. He had to finish before
    she got home.
    The soil was tender, and it tooke but half an
    hour to make the grave.
    Time was precious so he went in and cleaned up.
    He grabbed a towel and went to angie's room. Grabbing
    both her arms, he pulled back a few feet-the puddle
    had soaked into the carpet leaving a dark stain. He
    considered an idea. It was the best idea he had ever
    had. If Mother had liked the nasty she would have
    been proud of his idea.
    He dropped Angie's arms and went back to his
    room. It pained him to look at peg's wasted body; the
    gash in her chest seemed bigger and painful. But she
    was old, he thought. Maybe it was best that she had
    died.
    Teddy tossed the knife and carried the rubber
    doll's limp torso through the kitchen into the back
    yard. "I'm sorry Peg," he told her painted face. He
    wouldn't bury her just yet-first he wanted to try out
    his idea. if it worked he would cover her up. It was
    almost time, he would have to hurry. Back in His
    sister's room, he took off his jeans and knelt beside
    the corpse. The smell of death was pungent and
    sickening, but life was too frightening for him to
    handle. He was more like a watcher. But it was too
    late for watching and she would be perfect. He could
    hide her. Just like Peg.
    As Teddy mounted his sister in a fumbling,
    incestuous act of necrophilia, Mother's car pulled
    into the cracked driveway. She saw through the grimy
    windshield the rotting bags of trash piled among the
    weeds near the porch. That damnable Teddy. Just like
    his farther.
    Merely four strokes within her. Teddy finished
    shamefully; he stayed inside for a few moments-he
    liked the slimy grip on his flesh. He was embarrased,
    but he liked the nasty stuff so much. Why couldn't
    Mother understand his needs?
    "Teddy, didn't I tell you to take out the
    trash?" she hollered as the front opened, slamming
    into the fall. she grimaced as a rat scuttled frm
    somewhere. A catalog of punishments befuddled her
    mind as she crossed the living room.
    Teddy froze. How could he explain this to
    Mother? He would have to hide Angie; if Mother saw
    what-"Teddy."
    As Mother hobbled into the hall, he looked up from
    his disgraceful postion.
    She stood above him, ancient and leviathan from
    his angle. Her cane loomed over him like a tree
    trunk.
    Teddys frozen panic melted and he leapt up and
    hurriedly cupped his naughty parts, hiding them from
    Mother.
    "Teddy, why didn't you take out the garbage?"
    "Huh?" He was confused by her displaced
    question, her banal motherliness.
    "Oh, never mind." Sho poked her cane at Angie
    with simple curiosity. "put on your drawers."
    "Mother it wasn't my fault, she killed-" He
    quickly shut his mouth-Mother couldn't know about
    Peg.
    She hated Peg.
    "She's dead, huh?"
    "Mother I didn't mean to kill her." That was a lie.
    "you were watching her again," Mother beamed
    "No Mother." That b***h, she had told. He wished he
    could kill her again; she suffered to little.
    "I told you not to do the nasty. And now i catch
    you doin' it on your sister. What can i do with such
    a disrespectful boy?"
    Her rhetoric frightened him. What if she took
    away the television? What if she made him take those
    pills again-what had she called them? Saltpeter? He
    could fix that though. He was good at hiding them
    under his tongue and then throwing them out his
    window.
    Although Teddy was taller than Mother, she overwhelmed
    him with her presence. She stepped over Angie
    and raised the cane to his head; she was varicose in
    her elegance.
    "Bad boys have to be punished. that's how we
    keep a family together."
    Sharply, and with surprising force, she
    bludgeoned his head repeatedly until he collapsed,
    limp and degenerated on the carpet.
    When Teddy woke he winced at the tugging pain at
    his eyelids-they wouldn't open no matter how hard he
    strained. Atop his naked groin he felt the cold
    security of Peg, and beneath him the gritty soil.
    DAmn Mother and her sewing. He touched his eyelids
    and knew he would find tiny knotted stitches binding
    his vision.
    "Teddy," she called from above. "you've been a
    bad boy. You won't be be looking at Angie anymore
    though, iv seen to that. Just like your farther you
    areI had to teach him a lesson too."
    He heard an earthly scrape above and pleaded for
    forgivness. "Mother please I didn't mean to look. I'm
    sorry. Please, Mother-"
    A scoop of dirt landed on his face, covering his
    nose and mouth; his arms were squeezed too tightly
    into the grave to protest.
    "Got to keep the family together."
    Mother continued to fill in the grave as Teddy
    struggled to free himslef; he wanted to spit but his
    mouthful of dirt prohibited any such action. Above,
    Mother babbled abouth discipline and Teddys
    Punishment led to suffocation as his eyes seeped
    tears of blood.