The Babysitter Murders - By Janet Ruth Young Page 0,16
friend here.”
“You’re so conscientious. When I babysit my brother I barely 54
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look at him all night. I have him trained to heat Hot Pockets for both of us.”
“You’re not getting paid.”
“Not directly, no.”
“Indirectly?”
“I use babysitting to blackmail my parents when I want to stay out late.”
“This weekend should have some staying-out-late opportunities.”
“So where are you and Gordy rehearsing?”
“Oh, stop it! What’s with that tone?” But Dani’s smiling. She’s grateful that Shelley brought Gordy up again. Maybe her relationship is not so rare, so hidden, so one-of-a-kind, but still, it’s hers, her personal feeling that should not be scoffed at or broken, that she clutches like her own baby bird egg.
“Yeah, right, rehearsing. He is pretty hot.”
“Well, it sounded really innocent. He has this old-fashioned niceness about him . . .”
“So where?”
“His house.”
“Everyone says his dad is rich. A lot of his customers, whatever you call them—”
“Clients.”
“Are musicians, like really famous ones.”
“That’s what my mom says. But look, I should probably—ow.”
“I’ll let you go then, little mommy. God, you’re such a Girl Scout.
I’d go crazy putting in the hours you do. See you in class, okay?”
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“Okay. Bye.”
“What?” Dani says, realizing she hasn’t heard Alex.
“We bought Louie a hockey stick. It’s in his toy box.”
“Oh.”
Alex grasps her ears and presses his nose against hers, turning into a cyclops.
“You look funny,” he says. “You’re my favorite person in the world.”
Dani’s mind starts to go to the bad place again. She had thought that wouldn’t happen today, because she was so happy.
But then Shelley said how good Dani was, and Dani felt bad because Shelley had no idea what Dani sometimes thought about when she came to this house.
Yes, her mind is going to that place again, even though when she arrived she was a normal, dopey girl falling in love. She wonders if she’s on the verge of something happening. She pictures Alex’s face, this face that’s pressed against her, all over the TV and the newspapers. His darling face. Oh God, she couldn’t bear it. If precious, adorable Alex were dead, and if she were the one who killed him . . . What would the headlines say?
MAYHEM IN HAWTHORNE HOME
SITTER STABS TOT
POLICE: TEEN WENT “BERSERK”
EMTS: “IT WAS A BLOODBATH”
NEIGHBOR: “WHO COULD HARM AN
ANGEL?”
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■ ■ ■
Dani’s heart starts to pound. All the details are so real. It feels like it could happen. It feels like it might happen. Except that she doesn’t want to kill Alex. So why does she keep picturing his death?
“You’re my favorite,” he says again.
“Don’t say that, Alex,” Dani says. She scoots out from under him, off the chair. “I’ll start dinner.”
“Okay,” he says, meaning it isn’t okay. He scowls and drops his head on the keyboard, careful not to hit any keys.
She leaves him alone and finds chicken tenders in the fridge and a can of corn on the pantry shelf. Why does Mrs. Alex keep buying corn if Alex doesn’t eat it? I’ll have to bribe him to eat this, she thinks. She hopes there are Popsicles. Unless Alex is already dead. Is it possible that she already killed Alex, but forgot? Did she go into some kind of trance she has no memory of? And he’s lying on the floor right now? That’s impossible, right? Or is it?
She checks the living room. Alex is alive, arranging his plastic animals in a circle around the ottoman.
He scowls. “Are you done yet?”
“Back in a minute,” she says.
All she wants is to protect him. Who would want to kill such a great kid? she asks, echoing the neighbor in the imaginary news headline. She finds the three big knives and puts them in the craft box and locks the garage. Enough craziness, she decides. I need to tell somebody.
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L I N E S
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“How hard would it be to find another sitter?” Dani asks Mrs. Alex that night. “I mean, if I had other commitments?” Dani tries to sound causal, but desperation tightens her face.
“What other commitments do you have?” Mrs. Alex asks. She pries off her heels in the front hall. “Is somebody offering you more money?” She tries to sound casual too, as if nothing is at stake, although Dani knows she must be surprised