Mad Green Eyes

Chapter 3 - Alison

1)    - Alison

Adelaide didn’t know how to ask the strange girl to stop visiting her. It wasn’t that Adelaide didn’t like the company – she was just afraid that one day her friend would be caught.

‘Look, I brought you some cherries!’ The blonde girl said, cradling a bowl in her hands, ‘you want some?’

Adelaide hesitated, then nodded. She was strapped down again, so the blonde girl dropped a large, dark cherry into her mouth.

‘How far can you spit the stone in the middle?’ The girl asked, a freaky little smile playing on her cherry stained lips, ‘watch this.’

She paused for a moment, and then spat. The stone collided quietly with the wall on the other side of the room.

‘I’m good at it, aren’t I?’ The fair-haired girl beamed up at the dark-haired girl. Adelaide spat hers, but only ended up getting it in her friend’s hair. They laughed as quietly as they could.

‘Did you remember your name?’ Adelaide asked when they had calmed down enough to speak normally.

‘Hmm? Oh, I did. It’s Alison.’

‘That’s a nice name. We both begin with A.’

‘Oh, you’re right!’ Alison said, her mouth full of cherries, ‘hadn’t noticed that.’

The two girls were silent for a few minutes, the quiet broken only by the munching noise of eating cherries.

‘Did you have any pets at your house?’ Adelaide asked, feeling the need for a new subject.

‘No,’ the blonde girl replied, ‘well, we used to have a horse, but we sold it because neither of us could ride. And I did have a cat, but my brother killed it.’’

‘Did he? Why?’

‘Because it pissed on his history essay,’ Alison said matter-of-factly, pausing when she realised that they’d eaten all the cherries, ‘he drowned it in the bath. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.’

Adelaide didn’t know how to respond.

‘Didn’t your parents do something?’

‘My parents?’ Alison echoed quietly, then shook her head, ‘no. My father died of a severe brain haemorrhage two weeks before I was born. My mother looked after me and my brother until I was five and he was eighteen, then she died when she broke her neck falling off a horse. My brother looked after me – not very well, I might add – after our mother died. She loved riding – we lived by the sea, and she would take our horse out on the beach and gallop over the sand. Me and my brother refused to ride – it looked too scary, but I loved the horse. Her name was Cloud – she was white, but I can’t remember the breed.’

Alison seemed to realise that she’d been talking for a while and stopped, looking away with a small smile on her face.

‘I’m... so sorry,’ Adelaide said quietly, ashamed that she had encouraged Alison to explain it to her, ‘I didn’t realise...’

‘Don’t apologise. What’s done is done.’

‘Your brother sounds horrible, if you don’t mind me saying.’

‘I don’t mind at all. I agree,’ Alison said through gritted teeth, and her hands balled into fists, ‘he was such a dick, and he never left me alone. Never. He was always mean to me and it’s his fault I’m here.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Ralph, I think,’ Alison hesitated, ‘to be honest, I only remember things I actually care about. He wasn’t one of them, so I’m not really sure. But back to your original question, I have a pet now!’