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The small boy with small black eyes I had asked for help had darted back to the others, who kept running sticks along the tiger’s cage and kept dancing back The largest boy, clothed in dull red, spit at the tiger It roared

The people laughed

My breath was quick andfast, and I crushed the doll in e boy bent down He picked up rocks--one, two, three The rest of the children did the same

Then each of theer Rattled its cage Struck its fur

I swelled with loathing, brihts swirled in er snarled and shrank back against its cage The boys laughed and the people cheered

The aniet out and I saw it into the earth Claws and teethfur I closed my eyes because that was the picture I would rather see

A scream pried them open

The creature had pushed up against the back of its cage--which fell I watched as it lashed out at the nearest boy, the biggest one Its claws split open his side in a widening red gash

The other boy, the one with s at the tiger He was looking at me, and his mouth formed the shape of the word that would one day becoe boy down and he screarabbed his throat in its an, but it did not matter The animal was free

68

AFTER

I AWOKE ON THE MORNING OF SOME DAY IN SOME hospital to find Dr Kells sitting inover h, bleached cotton sheets The cohts I could hear the at the antiseptic roolass

And then, in a flood, everything came back

Jude, limp while I drained the life out of higing Megan away fro him die inside while I lied to him, when I told him that I would be okay

But it wasn’t a lie I broke out of Jude’s arms and Noah was near me, beside me, before I blacked out He called my name I heard it I remembered it