This Is All A Lie (January and Gulliver) novel Chapter 2

“Kaylee, get your butt down these stairs now!”

January heard her mother’s snap and wondered what it was the seven-year-old had done now. Her daughter was a handful at the best of times but when she was being devilish, which as of late seemed to me more often than not, she was downright impossible to deal with.

Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.

At seven years old Kaylee was everything January dreamed of being when she was a little girl. Bright, vivacious, smart and bold were all apt descriptions. She wasn’t the kid who was at the top of her class academically, but she was the one child every kid in the school knew because she was always the center of attention.

Moving to a small town when she’d been pregnant with her daughter was supposed to be idyllic. January was content to live a life of quiet solitude with her parents. Unfortunately for her and her parents, Kaylee was not content to fly under the radar. This kid was destined to find herself in the spotlight like either a movie star or based on how her mother was yelling right now, January considered with sarcasm, a serial killer.

Coming out of the spare bedroom, which doubled as January’s home office, she entered the kitchen and immediately recoiled at the scent.

“What the fuck is that?”

Her mother’s face, what she could see of it hidden behind her T-shirt, was red and January wasn’t sure it was rage or from struggling not to projectile vomit.

“I found a kitten!” Kaylee blinked big blue eyes at her.

“She put a fucking skunk in our sink. It’s scared and it jumped out and now it’s behind the stove hiding!”

“Kaylee, a skunk?”

“It’s a kitten.” Her daughter was standing holding a bottle of shampoo. “It was by the woodpile out back. I got your shampoo, the one that smells minty, so I can give it a bath.”

“It’s a skunk. You can’t wash the stink off a skunk.” Her mother bellowed with rage.

“Are you sure, Nana because I didn’t see a stripe on it. It’s all covered in mud, and it was stuck in the woodpile. I rescued him and brought him in.”

“You can’t smell it?”

“I thought it was because he was so dirty!” Kaylee argued with her hands in the air and her pout on full display.

“It let you carry it in here?” January was aghast.

“Well yeah,” she shrugged and then made a face, “I mean I gave it some beef jerky.”

“You took my beef jerky?” January glared at her child. She’d been waiting to enjoy the treat she’d gotten from the local farmer’s market the weekend before.

“I needed something to get Henry out of the wood pile.”

“What the hell is that smell?” Terrance entered the kitchen and immediately gagged.

“There is a skunk hiding behind the stove because your granddaughter thought it was a kitten in need of rescuing.”

“I’m out.” He turned on his heel to walk back out of the house.

“He’s so cute. Look at his bum wiggling.”

Her mother lunged with the broom and pushed the screen door open and flung the thing outside.

“Nana!” Kaylee wailed as the critter took air and flew over the steps onto the dirt where it lay on its side gasping for breath. “You killed it.”

“Fuck Mom, that was a bit rough,” January made a face at her mother’s furious countenance.

“I didn’t see you scooping it up with loving hands to escort it gently back to the woodpile.”

“What if it’s really hurt?”

“You go check on it then!” her mother waved at her. “Go on, Miss-I’m-So-Scared-I’m-On-A-Table!”

Gingerly she got off the table and tentatively walked to the door as she shot a sideways glance towards her daughter who was sobbing pitifully with tears so big January was sure the kid would be dehydrated in an hour. She could handle a lot but seeing those blue eyes crying wasn’t at the top of the list of things she could harden her heart on.

Outside the creature was laying with one leg contorted, a big laceration on its side and gasping for breath.

“Fuck, shit, balls,” she sighed loudly and approached the thing with caution. She didn’t like anything which even came close to being rodent related. She was not one of those kids in school who volunteered to take the classroom hamster home on the weekend. No sir. Not her. Things with sharp teeth freaked her the fuck out. Kneeling next to the thing she watched as it gave a loud sigh as if expecting her to end its miserable life and the stench which wrapped around them both made her want to sob.

“The shit I do for my kids,” she whispered as she dug her phone from her back pocket and scrolled for the name of a wildlife sanctuary in the area.