Glassbreaker Alice

Chapter the First, In Which We Meet Our Courageous Heroine

Alice Carroll could think of a hundred places she'd rather be than staring at an old dead woman on a Sunday afternoon.

Not that she was actually staring. In fact, she was trying to keep her eyes away from the front of the room where the old woman lay in her coffin. She was looking at the bald head of the old man in front of her instead. Until then, she'd never realized that the back of someone's neck could be so wrinkly.

She shifted her eyes and looked around. Bad idea. Viewing the living at a funeral was almost worse than viewing the dead. The church was full of old people, with their wrinkles and their age spots and their loose skin. They were like skeletons shuffling around. She grimaced as she caught the eye of an old man with whiskers coming out of his nose. He smiled at her with his stained teeth, and Alice shifted closer to her mother.

Her mother gave her a sad smile and patted her hand. Alice glared at her and crossed her arms, covering the bleeding apple on the front of her black t-shirt.

She didn't know why her mother had dragged her to this stupid funeral to begin with. It's not like she even knew the dead lady. Nellie Stephens or Simpson or "S" something or other. Alice had only seen the woman a couple of times in her entire life, and her mother hadn't worked with her for years.

She'd tried to get out of coming. She'd even asked the neighbors if she could babysit their two little blobs that afternoon, but they'd given her a funny look and said they thought she was too young or maybe they were going to be home all weekend. They couldn't decide which.

Thirteen years old was not too young to babysit; Alice knew for a fact that they'd had sixth graders babysit for them before. The real reason was that they thought she was a bad kid. Just because she wore black clothes and dark eyeshadow didn't mean she was a juvenile delinquent. It's not like she did drugs or punched babies; actually, she got straight A's and had never even had detention. She just happened to like things that were slightly macabre. Except funerals, of course.

She pulled up her black knee socks and admired the pattern of skulls sewn into them.

"We're going to a funeral, not a Halloween party," her mother had said when she'd seen them.

Alice thought they went pretty well with the black and blue streaks she'd put in her hair the day before. Plus, she had been hoping the outfit paired with her crazy hair would make her mother so angry she would let Alice stay home. That hadn't worked either.

She twisted a strand of hair around her finger and noticed that the people in front of them were standing and leaving their seats.

"What's going on?" she asked her mother.

"It's time for the viewing," her mother whispered back.

"The what?" Alice asked.

"Shh. Come on." Her mother stood, and before Alice could say anything, her mother had pulled her into the line of people moving down the aisle.

Alice looked around, but she had already figured out where they were going. One by one, each person walked by the casket and paid his or her final respects to the dead woman. She noticed a few who actually leaned over the body itself, and although she couldn't see exactly what they were doing, she had a sneaking suspicion they were kissing the dead woman's face.

She felt a gag forming in her throat. She clutched her mother's arm as the line edged closer to the casket. "Mom," she hissed. "I don't want to go up there. I think I'm going to throw up."

Her mother shook her arm loose and shushed her. "Stop it, Alice. Don't make a scene."

"I'm serious, Mom," Alice insisted. She was beginning to panic. "I want to go home. I don't feel well."