charlie maxfield is a creeper

Hey all! I don't think I'm going to be having many adventures for a week or two until the swelling in my foot goes down. So....as I've mentioned before, I'm working in a six week writer's workshop with some really great local authors. It's a good way to make sure that I start and finish SOMETHING....anything! I recently wrote this story, or rather I should say it almost wrote itself. I had an idea in my mind about this little girl looking in people's windows, trying to find a peeping tom by essentially being one. But--I really didn't have any more ideas about the story than that. I just kind of started writing and it came out. Anyhow, it's probably a little too "sweet" for the writing group I run with but it's still a decent read so I thought I'd share it with you in incriments this week. Enjoy :).

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CHARLIE MAXFIELD IS A CREEPER


“Oh for the love of all that is Holy! Eva, that creeper is still out there!”

Aunt Janet’s voice and the sudden, sharp shake of newspaper startled Caroline. She was sitting in the hallway punching out paper doll clothes—a striped swimming suit, a gingham halter dress, a black evening gown-- her small fingers pushing carefully at the lines of perforations.

“What?!” answered Caroline’s mother from the kitchen, “Still? He’s been out there for weeks now!” She stepped around the corner, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “What else do the police have to do around here besides look for him?”

Aunt Janet licked her thumb and index finger and turned the newspaper page, “I don’t know” she replied, “but I kinda wish that if he’s going to be out there not getting caught, he’d at least come peep at me for a while. It’d be the most action I’ve seen in a long time.”

Eva laughed and threw the dishtowel at her sister, “Oh, that’s disgusting!” The towel landed on the ground just in front of Janet.

“Mom” said Caroline, “What’s a creeper?”

“Caroline!” said Eva, turning suddenly, “I didn’t see you there! What on earth are you doing sitting in the hall?”

“I’m doing the paper dolls we found in the box of old stuff at Grandma’s. The sun is too bright in the living room so I’m sitting here. What’s a creeper?”

Eva walked over to her daughter and crouched down. “Well hon, a creeper is another word for a peeping tom. Do you know what one of those is?”

Caroline shook her head, her blonde braids smacking against her cheeks.

“Um, it’s someone, usually a man, who tries to look at other people without them knowing.”

“Why would he want to do that?” asked Caroline, “does he want to surprise them?”

Eva paused, “No. Not really. I suppose because some people are just sick in the head and choose to do sick things. But you don’t have to worry about creepers, baby.” She glanced sideways at her sister, “Aunt Janet and I are a couple of tough broads. We wouldn’t let anyone get close enough to creep on us. Ok?”

Caroline nodded, then added, “And my crosses will keep us safe too”.

Eva exhaled slowly then added, “Of course they will, Caroline. Of course.” She patted her daughter on the head and half-smiled.

“I think I better go make some more crosses then” Caroline said, “Just in case.”

Janet and Eva watched her stand and walk down the hall until she disappeared into her bedroom, the small pile of paper doll clothes left behind.

“It might be time to take her in for some counseling or something, you know” Janet said quietly. She folded the newspaper in half and set it on the couch next to her. “I mean, wanting to read the Bible and watch the tele-evangelists was one thing, but all of these pictures of crosses? And the rosary beads? And only wearing long dresses and braids in her hair? It’s just not right for a nine-year-old. Even one with an imagination like Caroline’s. She doesn’t even know what religion it is she’s trying to copy.”

“I know” said Eva, flopping down on the chair nearest her sister, “She seems to be borrowing a bit from all of them. At least I talked her out of the yarmulke she was trying to fashion out of her winter hat.” She drew in a long, slow breath and blew it out and upward, the motion of air lifting her bangs slightly off her forehead. “Janet, I don’t know what to do. I keep hoping it’s just a phase she’ll grow out of, like when she was little and used to have to take all those stuffed animals with us everywhere we went.”

Janet laughed, “I remember that! There must have been, what? Twenty of them? You stuck them all in a pillowcase and Caroline drug them around behind her.”

“Exactly” said Eva, “And remember when she took the field trip to the capital building last year? All the fan mail she sent to the Speaker of the House for who knows what reason? I was worried about her then, too. But both those phases lasted less than a year and then she got tired of them. She’ll get tired of this, too, right?”

“Except that both those things happened before Brian took off. I know he was hardly around enough these last few years to be qualified as a father, or a husband for that matter, but I wonder just how much of a role it plays in her odd behavior?”

Eva answered, “It’s been six months now. She didn’t even ask about where he was until he’d been gone a month.”

“And what did you tell her?”

“Not much, to be honest. Just that there weren’t any good paying jobs around here, so he went away to work.”

“And?” asked Janet, “What did she say?”

“She just said ‘ok’. And that was the extent of it. I’ve tried to keep things as normal as possible for her hoping. Tried to just keep smiling. It’s the best I can do, for her and for me.”

“Alright then” Janet said, “I’ll never criticize your parenting, Caroline is a sweet and special child. But don’t come crying to me when she starts talking in tongues or claiming she saw the Virgin Mary in her Lucky Charms.”
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