The Beast Read Free Page B

T-shirts, panties, tights, shoes, a hair-
ribbon, everything was very neatly and precisely placed with about two
centimetres between each item. Just about exactly two centimetres apart.
        The
girls had been looking at her. But they had not been breathing.
    ----
    ABOUT NOW
    ----
        
    I
        
    (24 HOURS)
        

        
        Putting
on a mask always made him feel very silly. A grown man hiding behind a kid's
mask ought to feel silly. But he had watched other men doing it, playing at
being Winnie the Pooh or Uncle Scrooge McDuck with some kind of dignity, as if
the mask didn't bother them. I'll never get the hang of this, he thought, never
get used to it. Won't ever turn into the kind of father I wanted for myself
once, the kind I was determined to be one day.
        He
kept touching the thin, garishly coloured plastic membrane that covered his
face. It was held on by a rubber band that fitted tightly round the back of his
head and had become tangled in his hair. It was hard to breathe, each breath
smelled of saliva and sweat.
        'You must
run, Daddy! You're not running! You're standing still! Big Bad Wolf's always
running!'
        She
had stopped in front of him, looking at him with her head tilted back, bits of
grass and earth scattered in her long blonde curls. She was trying to look cross,
but angry children don't smile and she did; she was smiling with the beaming
face of a child who has been chased by the Big Bad Wolf, round and round a
house in the small town. Chased until her dad couldn't stand it any more,
wanted very much to be somebody else, someone who didn't wear a mask with a
wolf's plastic tongue and teeth.
        'Marie,
I can't hack it any more. Big Bad Wolf has to sit down and rest for a bit. The
Big Bad Wolf wants to become small and kind.'
        She
shook her head.
        'One
more time, Daddy! Just one more.'
        'That's
what you said last time.'
        'This
is the last time.'
        You've
said that before too.'
        'It's
the last time. For sure.'
        'Sure,
sure?'
        'Sure.'
        I
love her, he thought. She's my daughter. It didn't happen immediately, I didn't
understand at first, but now I do. I love her.
        Suddenly
he caught sight of the moving shadow. Just behind him. It was slow, crept
along. He'd thought the other one was somewhere ahead of him, over by the
trees, instead of right behind him, but there he was, moving stealthily at
first, then speeding up, just at the moment when the girl with the mucky hair
attacked from in front. They pushed him at the same time from opposite
directions. He staggered, fell and hit the ground. Now they could both jump on
top of him. They stayed as they were, then the girl with mucky hair raised her
hand, palm outwards, and the dark- haired boy, the same age as her, raised his
hand. Their palms slapped together. High five!
        'David,
look! He's given in!'
        'We
won!'
        'The
Pigs are the best!'
        'The
Pigs are always the best!'
        Attacked
by two five-year-olds from opposite directions, the Big Bad Wolf hadn't got a hope.
As always. He knew what he must do, and rolled over, the two creatures on top
of him following the roll. Lying on his back, he raised his hands to the
plastic mask and pulled it off his face, blinking in the strong sunlight. He
laughed out loud.
        'Isn't
it funny? I lose every time. Never win. Have I ever won, just once? Can anyone
explain what's going on?'
        Waste
of breath. The two creatures didn't listen. They had won the prize, the plastic
mask. They would try it on first, then celebrate by wearing it for a
run-around. Afterwards they would go inside, upstairs to Marie's room on the
first floor, to add the mask to their other trophies. They would stand in front
of the pile for a moment, a Ducksburg monument to the glory of two
five-year-old friends.
        As
the children wandered away, his eyes followed them. He looked at