No Strings

CHAPTER 4--Stop Light; Go Light

"But why this school?"

"I think the academic benefit to you will be enormous. They have a good reputation for being able to put their children into college. It's also cheaper."

My heart swelled with pride. She cared about how well I did and wanted better for me.

That night I smiled at the ceiling waiting to go to sleep.

I heard through the door, "Vickie--that William kid's mother..."

I got up from my bed and went to the door, curious. I couldn't hear the majority of her conversation. I heard Vickie again.

"Vickie--I don't like her," my mother said, "Betsy spends too much time with her."

I could hear my father try to contradict her, but his entreaties fell on deaf ears. I felt my throat close.

I started at a new school and we changed churches soon after. I called my friends to go over to their houses, but my mom complained about the phone call costs. I wrote letters, but never received replies. My parents refused to drive me home from my friend's houses and soon after forbidden to visit or allow people to our house. I never gained any friends at my new school and lost all my friends from my old school.

***

Lillith had gold eyes a sleek body of sable and a patterned belly. She was anything but normal to me. From the yellow glow along the sides of her body to the deep and dark black of her pattern, she was everything I could wish for in a friend.

She climbed my arm, hugging it with her cold body, flicking her tongue.

Her muscles inched and I smiled. She was worth getting an after school job for. She was worth spending one hundred dollars on the tank and seventy-five dollars. I rubbed my head against her scales. My birthday gift to myself for my fifteenth birthday.

"You won't die in fifteen years like all the other pets. I want you to stay with me until I'm very old. What do you say?"

She slithered around my arm to stare at me. She wanted her mice and pinky rats. I set her down in her tank. I reached for the thawed mice on top of the freezer--my mother didn't like mice next to the vanilla ice cream, so I had to buy my own miniature freezer.

"My parents almost didn't let me have you, did you know that?" I asked her as she slithered along the edge of the feeding tank and then looked up. She knew what was coming.

The ball python flicked her tongue.

"I had to really work to get you," I said as I primed her meal.

She hovered her head upwards as if she was being charmed.

"You did a great job of clutching those eggs for the herpetology club. I hope it wasn't too stressful. They said they would take care of you when I'm in college if I pay for your mice. Do you mind?"

She flicked her tongue. I hovered her meal over her head. She hesitated and then looked at the meal. I moved the tongs. She made a clean strike.

"Good strike!" I said. I watched her swallow her meal, satisfied, my troubles of the day melting away.

That was the last time I got to breed her.

***

My boyfriend opened the car door--one he couldn't drive yet because he didn't have a license or permit. I looked down at the ground and hesitated. "I'm not sure."

"We can't go anywhere else," he said.

I dragged my feet and shook my head. "I don't think so... can't we go to the movies?"