More Than Human

‘Baby. Yeah. Well, that was a couple of months after we moved to Miss Kew’s. Things were already getting real smooth, even then. We’d learned all the „yes, ma’am, no, ma’am” routines by then and she’d got us catching up with school – regular periods morning and afternoon, five days a week. Janie had long ago quit taking care of Baby, and the twins walked to wherever they went. That was funny. They could pop from one place to another right in front of Miss Kew’s eyes and she wouldn’t believe what she saw. She was too upset about them suddenly showing up bare. They quit doing it and she was happy about it. She was happy about a lot of things. It had been years since she’d seen anybody – years. She’d even had the meters put outside the house so no one would ever have to come in. But with us there, she began to liven up. She quit wearing those old-lady dresses and began to look halfway human. She ate with us sometimes, even.

‘But one fine day I woke up feeling real weird. It was like somebody had stolen something from me when I was asleep, only I didn’t know what. I crawled out of my window and along the ledge into Janie’s room, which I wasn’t supposed to do. She was in bed. I went and woke her up. I can still see her eyes, the way they opened a little slit, still asleep, and then popped up wide. I didn’t have to tell her something was wrong. She knew, and she knew what it was.

‘ “Baby’s gone!” she said.

‘We didn’t care then who woke up. We pounded out of her room and down the hall and into the little room at the end where Baby slept. You wouldn’t believe it. The fancy crib he had and the white chest of drawers and all that mess of rattles and so on, they were gone, and there was just a writing desk there. I mean it was as if Baby had never been there at all.

‘We didn’t say anything. We just spun around and busted into Miss Kew’s bedroom. I’d never been in there but once and Janie only a few times. But forbidden or not, this was different. Miss Kew was in bed, with her hair braided. She was wide awake before we could get across the room. She pushed herself back and up until she was sitting against the headboard. She gave the two of us the cold eye.

‘ “What is the meaning of this?” she wanted to know.

‘ “Where’s Baby?” I yelled at her.

‘ “Gerard,” she says, „there is no need to shout.”

‘Janie was a real quiet kid, but she said, „You better tell us where he is, Miss Kew,” and it would of scared you to look at her when she said it.

‘So all of a sudden Miss Kew took off the stone face and held out her hands to us. “Children,” she said, „I’m sorry. I really am sorry. But I’ve just done what is best. I’ve sent Baby away. He’s gone to live with some children like him. We could never make him really happy here. You know that.”

‘Janie said, „He never told us he wasn’t happy.”

‘Miss Kew brought out a hollow kind of laugh. „As if he could talk, the poor little thing!”

‘ “You better get him back here,” I said. „You don’t know what you’re fooling with. I told you we wasn’t ever to break up.”

‘She was getting mad, but she held on to herself. „I’ll try to explain it to you, dear,” she said. „You and Jane here and even the twins are all normal, healthy children and you’ll grow up to be fine men and women. But poor Baby’s – different. He’s not going to grow very much more, and he’ll never walk and play like other children.”

‘ “That doesn’t matter,” Janie said. „You had no call to send him away.”

‘And I said, „Yeah. You better bring him back, but quick.”

‘Then she started to jump salty. „Among the many things I have taught you is, I am sure, not to dictate to your elders. Now then, you run along and get dressed for breakfast, and we’ll say no more about this.”

‘I told her, nice as I could, „Miss Kew, you’re going to wish you brought him back right now. But you’re going to bring him back soon. Or else.”

‘So then she got up out of her bed and ran us out of the room.’

I was quiet a while, and Stern asked, ‘What happened?’

‘Oh,’ I said, ‘she brought him back.’ I laughed suddenly. ‘I guess it’s funny now, when you come to think of it. Nearly three months of us getting bossed around, and her ruling the roost, and then all of a sudden we lay down the law. We’d tried our best to be good according to her ideas, but, by God, that time she went too far. She got the treatment from the second she slammed her door on us. She had a big china pot under her bed, and it rose up in the air and smashed through her dresser mirror. Then one of the drawers in the dresser slid open and a glove come out of it and smacked her face.