“I tried to catch it before it fell, Mom.
I just couldn’t.
I’m sorry.
I know you really liked it.
I’ll pay for it out of my allowance.
Please don’t be mad at me.”
Much to Teddie’s delight and Tammy Lou’s disappointment, their mom fell for the entire pitch. Lock, stock, and barrel.
She reassured Teddie that she wasn’t mad at him and that the lamp wasn’t all that important anyway.
An even worse blow to Tammy was that their mom actually apologized to Teddie for blaming him.
Teddie even got away with not cleaning up the mess.
To little Tammy Lou, it was obvious that being an older child had its privileges.
It wasn’t until later that Tammy Lou realized that she couldn’t find Sally.
But by then, she couldn’t remember where she had left her.
And it was a very sad and teary-eyed Tammy Lou who cried herself to sleep while Teddie patted himself on the back for getting away with murder.
The only thing that remained was to remove the body out from under the couch and get rid of it.
Then he would be scot-free.
Their mom was even talking like Tammy Lou might have lost Sally on their way to the doctor’s office.
Teddie drifted off to sleep with dreams of his perfect crime.
Teddie awoke from a horrible nightmare
This nightmare was one in which his mother had found out about what he had done to Sally and Porcelain
In this nightmare, police had come to take him to porcelain prison.
Once there,
he was surrounded by hundreds of broken toy dolls that crept closer and closer to him whenever he wasn’t looking at them.
He had been trapped in a slowly tightening circle.
The horrible faces kept staring blankly at him with eyes that burned with hatred and a thirst for revenge.
It was the living hell for bad brothers who broke their sister’s dolls and Teddie didn’t like it.
When he awoke,
Teddie sat up straight in bed,
covered in sweat.
He knew immediately that he had to clean up all trace of what had happened,
but he wasn’t sure how.
It was still early,
so Teddie decided that he might be able to sneak down into the living room and dispose of the body before anyone else got up.
Being Saturday, he was certain that his mother and sister would sleep in.
Teddie didn’t want to raise any suspicions by making his sister think that he had gotten up extra early that morning.
If he got caught downstairs or going back upstairs,
he definitely didn’t want anyone to know just how long he had been awake.
Normally, he would immediately change into his regular clothes for the day.
He never went out of his room in his pajamas or nightclothes unless he absolutely had to.
Usually, that meant his mother made him.
The less anyone saw him in his ridiculous short nightshirt, the better.
That morning, Teddie didn’t get dressed right away.
Instead, he very quietly crept out of his room and down the hallway to the top of the stairs.
He hoped that he could do his dirty work and get back into bed before anyone else woke up.
His bare legs and feet made no sound as he cautiously descended the stairs.
He was careful to place his feet as close to the banister and wall as possible
since he had found from experience that this was the most-sturdy part of each stair and made the least noise.
Even with that extra precaution, there was an occasional shriek of protest from the wood of the staircase.
Teddie cringed and paused with each creak.
He waited each time to make sure that there was no sound of stirring from his sister’s or mother’s room.
He became increasingly conscious of the distracting feeling of cool air moving up under his nightshirt and around his naked legs.
His legs being spread apart and his nightshirt riding up further than usual,
Teddie was thankful that there wasn’t anyone downstairs.
He certainly would have given them quite a show.
He became distinctly aware that this is what it must feel like for girls to wear skirts.
He decided that he didn’t like the notion and gave an inward offering of thanks that he had been born a boy.
After all, you have to stop and occasionally give thanks for the small blessings in life.
