The End of Lizard (297 words)

The End of Lizard

(297 words)

As a child, they called me Lizard. My true name is Elizabeth, but I was a wily runner. I lived with Ma, Daddy and older brothers in a shack off Townline Road, where rich folks never went. We had not one coin to rub against another.

One autumn day, with the boys out in the field, Ma and I, in the yard, were making soap, boiling the grease and lye in the pot over the fire. Ma looked tired. She had a graveyard cough, and no medicine.

I was stirring—always one way—when Jimmy the Peddler arrived with his wagon, hawking remedies, elixirs and potions. “Keep stirring, Lizard,” Ma said.

Wiping her hands on her apron, she went to Jimmy’s wagon. They talked. Smiling, he leaned in. Ma put her hand on his arm. I might have been only fourteen, but I knew hijinks when I saw them.

At dinner, I announced to the assembly, “Ma made sweet with the peddler today!”

Daddy narrowed his eyes at me, then Ma. “While I’m out busting my hump?” he snapped.

Ma rolled her eyes. “I made a bargain.”

Daddy’s nose-breathing was loud. He thought and chewed. Finally, he nodded, and no more was said.

Daddy struck up a conversation with me the next day. “You’re a growed woman, now, Lizard,” he said. “Time to pay your way.”

Jimmy the Peddler came by soon after, and was ushered into the house. They called me into the room. “You’re to be married to Jimmy, Lizard,” Ma said.

Daddy looked at his feet.

Understanding dawned. “You’re selling me for remedies?”

Mama coughed. I closed my eyes. I was a dutiful daughter. I married Jimmy. And I stopped being Lizard that day, never to run again.