Lucy Troma and Treena - Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a girl named Lucy Troma who lived in the suburbs. She had very sharp teeth that she would snap at her mother’s friends while hiding behind the furniture. She liked to rub her fingertips over newspapers until they became black and smudge the ink in elaborate patterns on her face. She sat in her room by herself and growled.

Lucy raised the blind that covered the window in her room and looked out into the park. She watched the other children, the children who weren’t her friends, the children who called her “beast”; she watched them play on the swings, the seesaw and the slide. She saw a boy she didn’t know push a girl named Ashley off the topmost rung of the jungle gym. She landed face first and stood up, with a bloody nose and a mouth full of sand. Lucy laughed. She looked over and saw a small girl with skinny arms wrapped around her concave chest chewing a strand of red hair.  She glared out at the dusty playground with squinty yellow eyes. When Ashley fell this girl didn’t laugh. She looked angry, but didn’t move or say anything.

Lucy left her room and crept downstairs through her parents’ dark empty house. Jinx, the cat, tried to rub up against her legs but Lucy snarled so Jinx hissed at her and ran away. She went outside and crossed the road and then opened the gate to the playground. The other children stared at her and two girls giggled. “Beast” they all said under their breath. Lucy felt strong with her war paint smeared across her face. She growled quietly and walked to the sandbox. The little girl who hadn’t laughed looked up at her, unafraid, one hand absently picking at a half-healed scab on her bony knee. Lucy climbed into the sandbox and sat down.

 “Hi.” Lucy said.

 “Hi.”

Lucy looked into the little girl’s yellow eyes, but didn’t see any of the things she had grown to expect in the faces of other children: fear, disgust, poorly-concealed contempt.

 “What’s your name?” Lucy asked, ducking her head down shyly.

 “Treena.”

 “I’m Lucy.”

 “I know”

 “How?”

“Mom told me to stay away from you.”

A ragged growl came from deep in Lucy’s chest.

“Treena’s friends with Beast!” yelled James.

“Cooties!” Someone else, Lucy didn’t know who, trilled in a cruel schoolyard falsetto.

Lucy snarled dangerously and leapt panther-like off of all fours at the children who had crept in closer like hyenas circling injured prey. The children jumped back as Lucy spun around, white saliva at the edges of her mouth. But one, Wendy, was too slow. Lucy grabbed her by a streaming pigtail and had her on the ground in less than a second. Lucy bared her teeth, ready to bite down on Wendy’s soap scented forearm, when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. Lucy’s head snapped around, her fingers digging deeper into Wendy’s toast colored skin. It was Treena’s hand on her shoulder. Treena’s calm yellow eyes looked thoughtfully into her own blue ones. For all their calm, Lucy recognized a dangerous flickering in their depths which she had seen before only in the mirror.

“Don’t.” said Treena.

Lucy turned all the way around, releasing and immediately forgetting Wendy, who whimpered piteously as she ran and hid behind the swing-set. Lucy looked at Treena. She wanted to bite her.

“Don’t do it.” Treena said.

Lucy bit her own forefinger, ripping off a strip of flesh, making it bleed and sat down in the sandbox. Treena knelt down beside Lucy and stroked her tangled head. Lucy growled, but Treena didn’t stop. Lucy finally curled up, her head on Treena’s knee, licking Treena’s scab, Treena smoothing her hair as a contented purr came rumbling out of Lucy’s chest. The other children looked at them in disgust and walked away.

“Beast” they said.