FAITH IN HUMANITY
THE THIRD AFTERMATH
"It was scary, Mommy," the little girl said, almost accusingly. "That sand monster was scary. I thought it was gonna crush Spidey."
Her mother sighed. "But he's gone now, sweetheart-"
"Exactly," the girl shot back. "'Cos he's in here." She tapped the jar of sand which lay on the table next to her bed. "He's trapped in there, and he can't get out. So he won't ever do bad things again."
"Really," the mother said. She knelt next to her daughter's bed.
"Yeah, Mommy. All the kids at school said so. They said when Spidey and his friend knocked over the Sandman, all the sand went everywhere. So if you went and got some sand and kept it in a jar or something, he'd never be able to put himself back together. 'Cos we'd have all the bits of him."
Her mother- a woman by the name of Sharona Prabhakar- shook her head. "You took that thing to school?"
"Yes, Mommy. All the kids thought it was cool. 'Cept for Penny," she added thoughtfully. "She told me the Sandman flew away, and that he could break glass anyway if he wanted to. But I don't believe her."
"I hope you weren't mean to her."
"No," she said indignantly. "She's sick. And even if she wasn't she's my friend. I'm not mean."
"Good."
"Look in the jar, Mommy."
Sharona looked in the jar. There was nothing but sand. She looked at it for a good while, though. You never knew, with kids. And you didn't want to offend them...
"Alright, sweetheart. He's in there."
"A bit of him's in there," the girl corrected. "That's just a bit of sand. I think maybe it's his finger. Or a toe."
"I shouldn't have taken you to that construction site," Sharona said. She had been feeling faintly guilty over that for three days now, but now she was beginning to wonder if it hadn't been a bigger mistake than she had thought. "You saw things you shouldn't have..."
"It was all monsters," the little girl said sleepily. "But Spider-Man beat them. And his friend helped. And that lady. She threw a brick at...that other one. I liked her. She had red hair like me." She pulled the covers around herself. "Don't worry, Mommy. The monsters have all gone."
Sharona stood up and looked down at her.
"Goodnight, love." she whispered, and left the room, switching the light off as she went. She went to her own bedroom and switched the TV on, and watched the monsters her daughter had spoken of flicker across the screen.
The jar of sand would disappear one day. Maybe. It was hard to think about. These days, children's fantasies practically walked the street...
She drummed her fingers anxiously on the remote control.
One could do nothing about a child's faith.