Chapter Twelve The Sound of a Thousand Delicate Things Breaking

As Miss Ida rolled her prize down the driveway, she heard screaming coming from somewhere behind her. This sound usually did not surprise her. Children could be noisy disgusting things and the children at Jackson Parish were particularly so.

She stopped a moment to adjust her shoe when “WHAM” she was knocked over onto the grass.

The moose flew off the hat that flew off the wig that flew off her head. They each in turn flew through the air and landed in different directions at the same time, except for her head, of course.

The moose landed somewhere is a patch of daisies. The hat landed on a pretty yellow rose that had just opened to greet the afternoon sun. The wig landed on an unsuspecting duck and waddled off.

Miss Ida’s shoes were flung down the driveway and were retrieved by Phoophie who dragged them back up to Miss Ida and gave her a let’s-play-fetch-again look. Miss Ida huffed and pulled the shoes from Phoophie’s slobbering mouth and clutched them to her chest.

She felt an uncomfortable lump underneath her hind end. She reached under and pulled out her gold and diamond watch frozen in time at the exact moment that she had taken her fall. A large crack across it’s face. Miss Ida was so crushed by her crushed watch that she didn’t even notice Carol glued to her legs.

Kay had run up to the cart. She threw the sheet over the top and clapped her hands once in the air like a magician, turned to Phoophie and took a bow.

Mary and Olivia crashed into the cart like two football players and sent it tumbling over. As it landed, the sound of a thousand delicate things breaking could be heard at the far side of the county.

Olivia climbed up the boxes and jumped up and down on each one. She started with the smallest box and skipped up to the largest. She jumped up and down to crush out whatever life was left in the beast.

Mary took a large stick and thrust it through the heart of the dragon or a close estimation of where the heart would be. The stick pierced the box and impaled the most valuable piece of china - the china teapot with a painting of St. George and the Dragon delicately engraved on the side in gold leaf.

The beast was dead. They were very pleased with themselves.

Miss Ida had turned a nasty shade of red. A very nasty shade of red. She looked like she was about to blow up like an atom bomb. She was so mad she couldn’t say a word. No words could express just how mad she was.

Carol held on to her legs for dear life. She was afraid that if she let them go, then Miss Ida could chase after her and… oh, she drove the terrifying thought from her mind.

Missy Hyde stood on the front porch with a look of absolute horror on her face.

Every window of the Plantation house was filled with girls. They all stood there and watched with their mouths open. In complete silence.

In the background, Gerald rolled on the ground. His hands were clasped over his mouth tightly so that his laughter could not be heard.

Miss Ida finally found her voice as she bellowed out, “LKSJDFEKJR DKJSDLFN KDJFNEG GKLJRE JKLDJG!”

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