Chapter 4: Sleepover

I stood underneath a eucalyptus tree during autumn. It was a cloudy and foggy day. Yellow leaves rained down, covering the ground up to my shins. Lily stood underneath the tree. She wore a white dress and had angel wings on her back. She went up to me and asked, "Sir, do you have any milk?" I kneeled down till my eyes were level with hers. I unbuttoned my shirt and squeezed my breasts. Milk started squirting from my nipples. Lily opened her mouth up wide.

Suddenly, my head felt a flash of pain. I fell to the ground in a daze. When I kneeled back up, I saw Mark. He had unzipped his pants in front of Lily.

"Would you like my milk instead, little girl?" he asked. Lily looked curiously at Mark as he took off his pants in front of her.

"No!" I cried. "Don't take his milk!" I lunged forward but Mark's friends grabbed me from behind.

I was too late. Lily's face started to decay. Her mouth started to decompose. Her neck and subsequently her whole body rotted and imploded with maggots.

I woke up and found myself in bed. It was Monday morning. Since it was Labour Day, I didn't have to go to school. I sat on my bed and thought about my nightmare.

My mind started to drift towards Lily. I reached under my pocket and pulled out Lily's panties. I almost forgot I had them. I swiped them the last time I saw her. My fingers felt the panties in my hands and felt its texture. They had pink flowers on them. They were worn; I could tell because at the front the material was slightly coarse. There were bits of powder around the front—probably dead skin cells. The panties were drenched in a unique smell. I wrapped the panties around my nose and breathed in her warm girly scent.

I closed my eyes and could see upon the pitch-blackness underneath my eyelids a vibrant burst of colours, almost as if rainbows were exploding in my mind. It was psychologically satisfying to have remnants of her in me. These exploding colours in my mind were later replaced with an image of Lily. She was naked, running around in a church garden under the sunlight. She was running in slow motion. She was smiling.

"Keith, what are you doing?"

I opened my eyes and saw my dad standing near the bedroom door. I had Lily's underwear wrapped all over my face.

"What have you got there?" He walked towards me.

I quickly brought the panties down and stuffed them under the blankets. "They're my undies," I said. "I was just seeing if they were dirty enough for the washing machine."

Dad nodded cautiously. I'm not sure if he believed my lie. "Alright, well, hurry downstairs. Your mum's made breakfast."

When Dad went back out, I hid Lily's panties under the bed and got changed from my pyjamas. I wore a grey t-shirt. Mum waited for me in the kitchen. She cooked pancakes for breakfast.

"Guess what happened," said my mum.

"What happened?"

"Nancy went around the neighbourhood telling everyone how much of a great babysitter you were and today another family wants you to babysit their son."

"Where is this new family?"

"Not far from here." Mum served me the pancakes. "Two blocks away from our house... next door to Nancy's house. They're the Wozza family. You'll be babysitting a nine-year-old boy named Edward."

Eddie! He was the stalker who spied on Lily. I couldn't wait to meet this boy. I could teach him a lesson for spying on Lily. I thought about it for a while. How was what Eddie did different to what I've been doing? I spied on Lily all the time. The only difference is that Lily never caught me spying on her.

"Eddie's father is in a wheelchair," said Mum. "He's going to the hospital today to try out prosthetic limbs."

"Is there a mother?"

"No mother. She was killed in the car accident. The father was lucky to survive, although that's how he lost his legs."

"How does that father take care of Eddie without any legs?"

"I have no idea," said Mum. "It must be hard. I'm told he lost his job after the accident and is now on welfare. He hardly gets any money from the government. It's definitely not enough to bring up a child."

"What time should I be there?"

"As soon as possible. Go there as soon as you finish breakfast."

I finished my pancakes, washed my face, and walked out of the house. The Wozza household was just as I recalled. It was a two-story house with red brick walls. The garden seemed dehydrated. The father obviously didn't do a good job watering the plants. Even the grass was turning brown. The whole front yard was plain and colourless. I walked to the front door and knocked twice.

A middle-aged bearded man in a wheelchair greeted me. It wasn't easy to keep my eyes away from the man's lack of legs. All that remained were two fleshy cones that protruded from his body. The man didn't bother covering up the amputated legs with casts or anything.

"You must be Keith Long," said the man. "My son's upstairs in his room. I'll be back in the afternoon." A taxi pulled up near the curb a moment later. The father wheeled himself towards the taxi.

I closed the front door and walked along a narrow corridor leading to the living room at the back of the house. The living room had one television and a small sofa. There was virtually nothing else in the room apart from junk on the floor like newspapers and beer bottles.

I climbed upstairs and entered what I thought was Eddie's room. The room was about the same size as Lily's—three metres in height, width, and length. The room was a perfect cube. It had nothing but a bed, a window looking out to the Jenkins household, a stack of magazines, and a desktop computer. There was no television, and the desktop computer looked really old. From what I've seen, this was a family living near poverty.

A small blonde-haired boy sat on the bed and stared at me. Below the neck his physical form was similar to those of girls his age. It's during puberty that males and females develop significantly different bodies. The boy wore a black t-shirt.

"Hi, I'm Keith, your babysitter."

"I'm Eddie Wosnitsuj."

"Wosnitsuj?"

"Yeah... or Wozza." Eddie didn't smile. His voice had a gloomy consistency.

"Oh, I see." I walked over to the stack of magazines on one corner of the room. Surprisingly, they were pornographic magazines. "Your dad allows you to read these magazines, Eddie?" I picked up a Playboy and flicked through the colourful pictures.

"Dad doesn't know I have them," said Eddie. "He can't come upstairs. He's got no legs. He doesn't know what I do."

"Where did you get these magazines from?"

"A friend from school."

"Which school do you go to?"

"St Leonard's."

"That's where I go."

"I know," said the kid. "I've seen you before."

I picked up another magazine and browsed through it. The type of images I saw were unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. I had the Internet at home but was never curious about pornography the way other boys were. I admit though I take a few peeks now and then.

"Eddie, you're ten years old, right?"

"Nine."

"Don't you think you're too young to be looking at these pictures?"

"I don't have the Internet at home. All my friends get to see this stuff but not me. It's not fair."

"Exactly who gave you these magazines?"

"Guy named Mark."

"Mark Illeragnim?"

"Yeah. He charges thirty dollars for each magazine. He sells to other people as well. There's a new magazine every week."

"Where do you get thirty dollars a week from?"

"I use the lunch money my dad gives me."

I understood now why the kid was so skinny. "How long have you been looking at these magazines?"

"About half a year."

"Do you like reading them?"

"Yeah."

I walked over to the window overlooking the Jenkins household. "Do you know the girl next door?"

"The girl next door... I've seen her."

"Lily?"

"I don't know her name, but I've seen her with you."

"I was babysitting."

"Did you touch her much?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you want to have sex with her?"

I remained silent for a few seconds. "What about you, Eddie? You like her?"

"Yes, I'd do anything for her."

I was appalled. "Lily's only nine."

"So am I." Eddie had a smile on his face as he stared forward.

"Lily doesn't like you."

"You don't have to like someone to have sex with them."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't need permission to do it." Eddie's eyes widened. It looked like he was high on some illicit drug. "My friends at school talk about it all the time. They have the Internet. They tell me stories. Sometimes they show me pictures."

"Why do you want to hurt her?"

"I'm not going to hurt her. She'll like it. All girls I see on the Internet like it. All girls on TV like it as well."

"Why do you buy magazines when you can get free pornography from the Internet?"

"I have a computer but I don't have the Internet. I see pictures at my friends' houses."

"Your friends are all your age?"

Eddie nodded.

"They all look at Internet porn?"

"All of them."

I thought about Lily. She was so young and vulnerable. I couldn't imagine what would happen if Eddie got to her.

"I'll make a deal with you," I said.

"What deal?"

"I have the Internet at home and can access free porn. I can copy pornography from the Internet and transfer it to you via floppy disk. In return, you have to keep away from Lily. You can't touch her or even go near her. You've got to stop spying on her from your room."

Eddie knew it was a good deal. He wouldn't have to buy magazines from Mark because he could get free images from me. He would be able to use his lunch money to actually buy food every day at school.

"Alrighty, I agree," said Eddie.

"Shake hands?" I offered him my hand, and he shook it.

Mum was pleased when she heard I made one hundred dollars that day. Dad always wanted me to be a banker. Babysitting was not part of my expected career path, but since it looked like I was making good money, Dad didn't complain much.

Upstairs in my bedroom that afternoon I finished an economics essay due tomorrow. After all the fun events that happened over the weekend, the thought of going to school tomorrow made me a little anxious. I looked under the bed, trying to find Lily's panties. I needed to hide it somewhere better. Oddly, I couldn't find the panties. Someone had taken them.

I heard the bedroom door open and expected Mum to walk in and tell me to come down for dinner. Instead, Lily skipped in. She wore a white dress. She jumped on my bed. I could hear the springs stretching.

"Lily, how'd you get in here?" I asked.

She looked at me. "Your mum let me in."

"Oh... okay."

She got off my bed and walked over to me. She twisted her body around and pointed to the ceiling for no reason.

I should be studying, but I couldn't resist talking to her. "Ready for school tomorrow?"

"No!" She made a look of disgust. "I hate school. I don't have to go because I'm smart."