All Together, One After Another
by Nyohah

3
Kill Him with Kindness

"each renders one individual dependent for the
foods of his affections and spiritual life upon another;"


Foul weather makes Miss Edith cross and unseemly. It rains, and it rains, and the streets are full of mud, and still no one cares enough to lie down his coat for her.

Grandmummy hates the rain also and says we should have stayed in the Mediterranean. It was Daddy's plan to come back to England for the summer for the warmth. Grandmummy laughs and says it's never warm.

I had to put Miss Edith in Grandmummy's hatbox so she wouldn't cry and spoil supper. She can still hear the rain on the windowpanes—slap! slap!—but no one ever cares what she hears. And she shouldn't see anything when she's in a hatbox, either. Her mummy wouldn't like it.

Shh! Don't speak ill of the dead. Only Miss Edith is allowed to be glad that her mummy was taken away from her. And only when she's in a hatbox.

The rain is whispering to me, very quietly so Daddy and Grandmummy and Miss Edith don't hear it. It's a secret just for me and for the cobblestones, but when the mud begins to cry, Miss Edith can see it. Her mummy wouldn't like that. Her mummy would like her new acquaintance, but not for Miss Edith. He's too fine a catch for Miss Edith.

She can feel beetles in her stomach, crawling around to try to get at him. She'll have him first, and they'll have him after. And when they're gone, who'll have him then? If Miss Edith knows, she won't tell.

The rain makes her cross.

It didn't rain on us when we were in Italy, but Daddy laughed at me when he saw the paintings. The schoolboys were laughing in their vulgarity, but I ate the one who didn't laugh. He liked beautiful things. Miss Edith isn't allowed to see beautiful things. If you stare at the pretty things for too long, then a monster will come and swallow you up, and then you'll need to find a new dress before they'll let you come to the ball.

There are pretty things here in the rain, dancing. They talk, and they laugh, and when the clock strikes tomorrow, they all die. The one who came back for them is the one who came for me. They looked at him and saw coppered butter. He tastes like sugared oranges.

Daddy was right about coming back for the rain, and Miss Edith can see it. Grandmummy will be pleased. It is her duty. Daddy will be jealous, but he never sees. He should have learned to lay down his coat so I don't dirty my ankles and ruin my dress.