Devil's Work

There is a morning when Gerard and Frank are extra-excited to give me my breakfast. Frank pulls out his video camera and won’t stop grinning when Gerard spoons oatmeal and mashed bananas into my mouth. There’s something different about my mouth, like the past few weeks when Frank has been giving me rubber things to suck on.

“Kaity!” Gerard calls to me in a sing-song voice, “Open wide, sweetie, look at me! Yum-yum!” He puts the food in my mouth and when I’m done chewing he holds up another spoonful. My mouth automatically opens but he just grins and looks inside.

“I can’t believe it!” Frank says from behind the camera. “She’s growing up so fast. Look over here, Kaitlynn! Keep your mouth open!”

I don’t understand what is so great about the tiny ache that’s been bothering me for days now. But when Frank flips the viewing screen to show me what he’s capturing on tape, I spot something weird against the pink of my tongue and gums. It looks very, very small and white.

“First tooth!” Gerard exclaims in that same sing-song tone. “Kaity, over here, sweetheart!” He gives me another spoonful of food. And then he presses a whole lot of kisses on my hair.

Frank is smiling so hard that he looks like he’s about to cry. It’s the same with Gerard. They both coo at me and then sniffle about how I’m getting so big. And then they keep telling me to open my mouth, like the tooth is a prize, or something. I don’t cry because they look so happy.

“I think she’s curious,” Gerard comments, “Sorry, Kaity. We’re so excited for you, you know!” He smiles warmly.

“Her eyes are so big,” Frank gushes, “They look like yours, Gerard, so hazel!”

“Nah,” Gerard disagrees, but his lips are hiding a small smile. “Well, then, they look like yours too, honey!”

Frank and Gerard laugh and unexpectedly it dawns on me that this is my family. They will love me so much and they will love each other so much and I will get to live in it, live in their love.

Their smiles turn into small tears that make them sniffle. “Don’t grow up too fast, Kaity,” Gerard reminds me in a hopeless voice. “Oh, Frankie,” he says as he turns to Frank, “Don’t you remember when she first came home with us? She was so small, so, so small...”

“And she wouldn’t let go of your hair,” Frank laughs.

“I remember that!”

They both laugh until they are cut off by the telephone ringing. Frank picks it up.

“Private name, private number,” Frank reads off of the caller ID, still giggling. “Mom has that number sometimes when she calls from work!”

“Put it on speaker,” Gerard suggests, trying to quiet his snickering.

Frank nods and he answers it, on speaker. “Hello?” he chimes.

There is an odd, eerie silence. Frank raises an eyebrow before he repeats: “Hello?”

I try to say something to Gerard but it comes out as something garbled. I reach my hand out to him. He takes my fist in his palm, but he makes a gesture to tell me to be quiet.

Frank shakes his head and goes to hang up, but then something on the other line clicks.

“Your family is in danger. You are no longer under the protection of the government, the state or its police forces. The ASACTT asks you to cooperate with their requests. If not, there will be consequences. Remember, your family is no longer safe.”

The line goes dead. But there is something strange about the message. It isn’t in a deep, distorted, threatening voice. It sounds cold and lifeless, a recording of a woman.

Frank nearly drops the phone. He nearly drops the camera, too, but Gerard is quick to help him sit.

“I knew it, I knew it never stopped.” Frank begins to panic and he grabs his forehead. He starts making desperate noises, his chest heaving up and down. Gerard goes away for two seconds but comes back with something in his palm that he gives to Frank.

Frank gulps the pills down without any water, something I haven’t seen him do before. He looks up at Gerard. “What is the ASACTT?”

“I don’t know,” Gerard breathes. “Maybe I’ll look it up on the internet later. It has to be some bogus organization. How do they know that the government will stop helping us? And they haven’t requested anything from us yet. It’s probably some stupid group trying to threaten us.”

“Your family is no longer safe,” Frank repeats softly. He is calmed down, letting Gerard rub his shoulder.

We are no longer safe. But why?