THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE LIZARD

Theodora ran and stuck her paint brush in red paint and painted a mommy face on her papersheet with big letters writed underneath, "U! R! screemin,” then ran to mommy and held it up, but mommy said, "Later Thea," and kept yelling at Daddy: "How can you keep insisting!"

And Daddy was pointing a long blame finger back at Mommy— but nobody paid no tentions to Thea’s paints nor nothing, just staying all angrywrinkled, with their mouthlips pulled back, showing meanly white teeths whom Thea was leaving paperwhite in her painting with little green poison spitbits spiting out, mommy's deep-green, beautiful soft eyes, were terrible meaned with angrynesses.

“It's my fault, I’m too little,” thought Thea, “gotta grow me tall like Sunny Sunflower is, nobody can’t pay no tentions to you so little, short down here.”

She ran out the back door looked back and saw that even House's walls, were backing up, cause House hated bad meanesses that gave him a headache in his attic, where all their beautiful Christmas tree bubble lights and ormaments was--Thea's own blue and gold little lizard ormament, little Lizero lizard, in his little Christmas box—prolly bumping around up there in his crinkled little bedsheet papers.

She ran back inside and screamed, even if it wasn’t, "the garage is on fires!" to stop the badness.

But nobody heard, "I'm inconsiderate?" Daddy was yelling, “and you screaming in front of the child?"

"Please don't say nothing else!" Theodora said to them, "you need a time out!”

She excaped out the back door to Thealand, trying to wake up soon—‘this must just be a too-hot-under-my-blankets nightmare dream, so when I wake up everything’ll not be ruined no more’; but she kept running past the garage, grabbing ahold of its pretend gate and pulling it open, right in through the unvisible gates of Thealand, during yelling upwards to her big wind brother, Sky, her big blue sunny afternoon brother living up there in the highup part of heaven so’s he’d fastly put his breezy big brotherly arms down around her; run his softy breeze-fingers, smoothing and ruffling her little blond hairs to make her feel betterness.

She said slamming, "ahhhh," Queen Thea said, slamming the sparkling goldy pretend Thealand gates.

Thea unbreathed out all her hurty poison chest breaths, unswallowed her gulpy heart pain; then breathed in very down into chestbone Sky’s big brother's calmations, his sweet, goodfeely blueness into stomachchest—that was lots better, “ooh, thanks Sky," she said, "that heartpain was really ouchy.”

Every first grade girl at St. Monica's had big brothers with them after school during waiting to get on the yellow, stinky, lunchpail smelling school bus, like everybody's old lunchmeat lunches. Most bigbrothers were totally cool, cept some were totally stinko-dinko picking their noses and flicking boogers at everybody whom flicked back that flied dirtily through airs and landed on clothes and skins.

So Queen Thea here had pretended for herself a skyhigh big brother, tall as the world, wearing blue sky airs, unless he was thunder-grumbling with black clouds smearing up his skyhigh face.

Theodora would then say to him, "cry down some rains, Skyey, I know you'll feel better, and get those dirty clouds off of you," so Sky'd rumble a little, sometimes get even darker clouddarks on his skyey face, then cry down cold rains, "that's it Sky," she'd say standing outside with him to keep him company cause he got so sad during his tear-rains and loving him very goodly hard, like you're supposed to love big brothers even with dirty faces, "you'll feel better now Sky."

But it was scary when Sky's angerness lightnings zapped down in flashing earspliters, "come out of that lightning," Mommy'd yell to her out the back door during Sky's boom-crashers, across the million billion miles of orange glinting windows during stormy sunset late afternoons, glinting through brown drifting smokes and housebuildings windows, far away roads with tiny orange-eye bug cars from up here in Montecito Hts. from House’s hilltop living room windows, even as far as seeing went to the far offness of the far other side of the worldearth, way over there, to the Pacific's water ocean.

But today, Theodora thought, Sky's face’s at least still clean and there's Sun up there, God the Father's yellow eye shining down into Thealand here his holy bright beautyness, brightfulnessly through his silver cloudgarden, full of fluffy white cloudflowers.

She flipped off her ear’s pretend hear-switch by pushing a pretend forehead button between her face’s eyes, out here in Thealand behind the garage, to not hear scary sounds from inside House. She changed her brain thinks and to not hear no yelling from House, she just remembered Daddy saying sweet little bedtime lizard stories to her of sweet Lizero, her Christmas attic ormament lizard with cute little claws; and, but at least in my dreams, she thought, I get to pet him.

Because Lizero, whom was a Holy Ghost lizard, filled with santificational grace—whom Daddy said the Holy Ghosters was always scamperizing around the whole world faster even than Santy Claus, telling human peoples to pray with great joyfulnesses to God.”

But Thea wanted a real lizard to pet; except yard lizards wouldn’t not let her, even here in Thealand, where she was supposed to be queen.

Bad argument noises from inside House was still squeezing in under Thealand’s gates.

Queen Thea pushed back open the pretend gold gates covered with jewelries, and ran back inside the kitchen through the back door that House blew shut behind her, crash!

She yelled, "there's gonna be a terrible earthquake today that’ll knock our house off the hill for destroyments," she yelled at them but nobody listened.

She ran back out thru the still open gates into Thealand; but now, for goodness, switched on her tongue’s pretend sweetness taster-switch for strong rememberation of something totally cool tasting for enjoyments: like peachy ice cream to not hear yelling: ooooh, she was remembering, little yellow and red peaches fruits, steamsmoking in their little, frosty, tin, ice cream making during hot weathers, that Mommy and her had just picked off backyard trees into the Magic Ice Cream Bucket, with the cold turnaround handle to icecreamerate into deliciousness.

Next good thing to remember, to unhear arguing now, was Mommy and Daddy kneeling by her bed saying the Holy Rosary, and then kissing Theodora goodnight--Daddy's tickley mustache kisses, and Mommy's sweet butterfly kisses onto her four head, she thought, keeping me safetys; during bad dreams I just touch my kissspots, where soft warm sweet kisses is sticking there on all night.

Mommy whispered in her ear just before she went into the dream world that her name, Theodora, meant, “gift from God."

Theodora now ran even more deeper into Thealand, whom was huger as China –sometimes as Africa or a whole world with a special far praying place for her, all the way out here past Palma, palm tree, for praying, "Holy Mary, please help!"

But that bad yellsound out House’s back door, was making her feel very stomachhurty and getting her mean too.

"Please, Mary," she prayed, "help our family not be ruined. Ask Jesus, if he’s got time today, to stopper their mouths with Draino."

Draino either stopped or unstoped, not sure, but it worked terrifically great on sinks with used foods in their throats.

But here also was her very mostprettiest and tall flowerfriend, Sunny Sunflower, with yellow fuzzy leafs, but she had sudden got terrible tall Sunny made a pinky promise to not grow so fast but supposed to wait for Thea.

"You been cheating Sunny, unlegally growing every day out here without me. Shame on you Sunny. And after our total pinky-promise. "

Thea had bentrd one of Sunny’s leaf ends just a smidge to pinky promise but not hurt it, just enough to go around her own little girl pinky finger, “we promise not to hurt nobody’s feelings by growing meanly too fast.”

“You’re just prissing (“prissing” was a Mommyword for ladies Mommy didn’t like) “out here, with your flowerface greeding in the Sun’s delicous butterbeams all day, and at school I can't, not fair, Sunny Sunflower."

But Sunny just kept sun gulping. What a cheater.

She wanted to kick Sunny’s stem to punish her prissy snootyness.

I'm growing up, Thea thought, cause I’m feeling good and mean like Mommy and Daddy.

She got up on her tall-you milk crate right beside Sunny, closing her eyes with wrinklesquints cause Sun was burning and watering her eyes--like in Heaven, seeing God the Father so brightly-squinty you gotta have holy sunglasses.

"See Sunny,” she said to Sonny's musky smelling brown fuzzy flowerface, "I teached you bout Jesus and heaven so you'd grow up tall but we pinky- promised we'd do it together. But now see? I'm taller than you again, anyways.

“And member I showed you how, from Mommy's flower book, whom I had to even make a pinky promise to bring it right back inside, to even get permissions to bring the book out here, Sunny, just to show you how you’re supposed to grow extra bright, totally groovy yellow pointy petals, and your first fuzzy leafs that I helped you grow more fastly, pulling on your leafs every day to make them grow fastlyer?”

She listened for a minutesecond and ran back out he gates again inside.

Mommy was stamping her foot at Daddy, “How dare you say that?”

“You’re ruining our whole house world,” Thea said and ran back out feeling meaner than ever.

“See, Sunny,” she said getting back to Thealand out of breaths, “ for prissing me I could just take your prettiest yellow petal right here," grabbing one of Sunny's bestgood yellow petals, "how do you like that? Huh? your prettiest flower petal see cause I could just pull it right off you, for being so prissy, not even talking to me no more. See, I could just do that, and be totally mean.”

But feeling Sunny's soft flower petal—it’d just take one hard finger yank and Sunny'd lose her best petal.

But then Theodora felt a sweet soft gentleness feeling come back into her heart pushing out the big lump of sinny guiltinesses.

"Sorry, Sunny," she said more nicer, "didn't really mean nothing. wouldn't never ever do nothing like that. Please don’t be scared."

And made her touching fingarians now touch nice on Sunny's frizzyface, "I want you to know I wouldn't never do that--like Sister said, that's just the devil trying to temptation me to be bad and this is a mean every where day. And I won't, never do nothing like that cause it's hurts my friend, and Jesus don't love you no more if you do that."

Several Act-of-Contrition hot tears came down Queen Theodora's face, during seeing, in her imaginations, poor Sunny’s beautiful groovy yellow petal ripped out, so she turned her head away to not let bad tears fall on Sunny--people tears aren't no good for flowers.

She said a prayer; and then, whispering to Sunny, "I remember when we was first greensprout friends and you was just growing your first little girlflower green leafs--you a baby plant and awful worried cause—remember--cause your leafs was too tiny small? And I said, ‘but Sunny, they’re beautiful bright green anyways, just to give you couragements, remember?”

She was now flicking a bit of dirty dry bird poop gently off Sunny’s hairy leaf.

“And when I make, my First Holy Communion I’ll pray super hardly for you. And remember, back when you was like so terrible thirsty in those days? your leafs drooped, and me dragging to you those very heavy bucket waters for helping you grow, and not die of the terrible thirties, every bucket I said a waterprayer to make them Holy Waters; but you, still without no flower of your own, were like scared you wouldn't never ever grow no flower. And I'm all, “Sunny, don't worry, pray to Jesus now and someday you'll get a beautiful flower. And you did Sunny, only cause of me praying for you, teaching you about Jesus and God and the stars, that you can't even never even see at night cause it's too late and flowers can't see in the dark, cause you're asleep, remember?

“And one morning, before school,” Thea went on, “when you was like crying little water skydrops down your furryleafs because of not growing enough taller yet, us both so small but we was pinky promising we'd grow up tall together?"

Sunny Sunflower swinged her flowerface in the breezewind and nodded back and forth in a soft flowerly, "yes."

Like with Barbara, Thea thought, Thea’s best friend; and Mommy told Thea about Barbara, that if Thea meenly revenged back on Barbara for being mean to her first, then the meanness would get worser and Barbara wouldn't be her friend in revengement back--Mommy told her, “don’t let Barbara’s bad mood ruin your friendship. Be nice to her. She'll come around.”

Sunny said, breezetalking her whispering petals to Thea, "friends isss "real important.”

Queen Thea had had a little celebration, a first-bud tea party for Sunny, right here in Thealand. Pouring teacups of celebration Holy Water on Sunny's roots and leafs and washing her new bud.

"Go back ins-s-s-side," petal-whispered the flower to Thea.

Sanctification graces was totally pushing out the meanness, finally Thea, saw a answer deep inside Sunny's heartpart past her brown soft little fuzzes, to Sunny Sunflower’s soft flowerside--like Mommy and Daddy should be doing.

"This is just a mean day, Sunny, and you’re really a good flower friend. On mean days peoples just forget to be good no more."

She looked at the plant's thick grooved stemstalk, big as her own arm and made a Sign of The Cross, like Father at mass.

But a devil shadow suddenly darked Sky’s light, did he need to cry? Even boys did sometimes. High Palma Palm Tree was also was flapping her handfans in scaredness up there, whom is the way palm trees pray.

Mommy and Daddy squirrel up there was chatter-yelling in front of their squirrelchild, the squirrel parents were screaming out terrible squirrel swear words in front of the squirrelchild.

"This is really a totally bad mean day, you need to look at your hearts," Thea yelled up to them.

Then it got even darker.

"Oh, Sky, please don't let your face get dirty, not right now--don't let that swooping in devil black cloud monster coming. Blow him away, Sky!"

Theodora thought, it was my fault, I was bad, to let it get yucko-ducko today, not praying enough, and being mean to Sunny, that's why. So I gotta totally pray hard--cause," Sister told us, "pray God for helps.”

Theodora ran to her prayplace, kneeling down in Piney's needles near the plastic barrel on Piney's sharp needles that hurted her bare kneeling knees, "I’m offering up my knee hurts for the world, Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee, help me stop this badness fore it busts the whole world to terrible broken no-goods.”

Yucko-ducko stinks was wrinkling up her nose here, coming from this half barrel of water cut down to a low barrel so Thea’s kneeling nose got grossed by the dark rottening slimy smells from down in the germy dark barrel water.

Hell, she thought, this here’s totally a Hell barrel, full of giganda huge devil germs. Sky’s raintears filled this half barrel partup, mostly covering Piney’s pine tree's needles inside.

But look, oh, how totally cool! There he is on the pine needles, a beautiful Holy Ghost dream lizard just like Lizero and in my dreams, that I been looking for to pet and now God sent me Him right here in this barrel.

“Hi Lizero! Oh, you are too beautiful, I dreamed you.”

He was on a brown little dry pine needle island in the middle of the barrelwater and now that she looked totally close--had a little tongue of real Holy Ghostian fire dancing over his lizard head and a slickly blue throat that was Pent a Cost Holy Ghost blue but that should actually be red like a dove bird, but doves were not really red except on telephone wires at sunset and then they were orange whom was close.

"How'd you get inside this barrel? I know You’re the Holy Ghost of God, like daddy said, and you go all over the world and you been waiting for me to visit you here on little Lizard Island."

The Holy Ghost, looked up with a very secretly eye, cocking his scaly little lizard head, nodding his whole body up and down, "yes," up-and-down in a very Holy Ghostian way because He was so small, and like Thea nobody couldn’t see Him good enough .

His little toes had gray claws, like Christmas attic Lizero's, and a long brown tail with bumply bumps—so terrifical perfect, actually He was the most Holy Ghosty in his long ridgey tail that looked totally holy, like in her dreams and now He was saying to her, in a small scaly voice inside her head-brains, but not actual opening His lizardly mouth, His chirping windwords now softly whispering into her brainears, "Theodora," He said, "prayer's the coolest thing, pray some and then go back in with lots of niceness and tell them again."

Probly He meant the Glory Be to the father prayer.

She folded her hands, whom were sweatly because it was hard work, with the pine needles hurting her knees and now sun shadow disinpeared —oh oh, it was getting dark, sun was drifting dimmy away! Oh she really had to pray mergency hard to fix this.

"No no, please don't do that! please don't! Sky, you' re letting those clouds ruin your face some more! Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, please fix the world and my family and at the hour of our death amen."

There was lots more middle to the Hail Mary but she would say it later.

Next she said a Glory Be Holy Ghost-type prayer, and kept looking up at Sky if it was working, checking with the Holy Ghost in the barrel--well, it was part working, a miracle wind was coming up like it was supposed to in religion books , "Glory be to the Father," she said even more loudlyier to help the wind whistle up a religion catechism book miracle, loud through the pine needles, "the Son," so she kept on, and, "here it comes,” she whispered, “I feel stoked," (it was a word third graders used) she thought, with miracley goose bumps bumpling up on her arms and neck; a miracle totally for sure, was coming to the Thealand, "and the Holy Ghost." She kept on, "As it was in the beginning," Holy Ghost was totally right, it was really working!

Sun was coming back out—Sky was puffing, very Godly warm again, the black sunswallowing clouds was getting puffed away! by Mary and the Holy Ghost whom were helping.

The sky was blueing morely and morely.

But, she looked down, this would be her only lizard petting-chance for all infinity, "could I pet you just a tiny smidge here? just inside your barrel on Lizard Island?"

Her mother had--different than Daddy--said lizards will bite and poison you to death. And ladies coming to visit mommy up the driveway, made all kinds of ladyish disgustation noises if they even saw one in the driveway cause ladies were always supposed to, to show they were un-men-ly.

Thea stuck her little hand slowly over the barrel's edge and inch-ificationally (Daddy's word) lowered it slow to not scare Him, just barely touching the Holy Ghost's pine needle island. But the Holy Ghost jumped off Lizard Island anyways into the dark musky moldy hell germ water, swishing His tail, churning His legs--in terrible dangers, like Peter, Sister said in religious class, on Galilee Lake, the lizard, like Peter, yelling up to Theodora, "save me for the parish!"

Theodora stuck her bare, clean fingers down into the cold, slimy, germwater--with swimming hellwater germs cause the Holy Ghost needed her--grabbed Him--His little sharp claws hurting her skin, the Holy Ghost worming and squirming His scalyness around in her hand just like her dream ones, but the poison couldn't hurt her cause He was a Corporal work of mercy; and sides, He didn't have no food flies, they never prolly ever came to his little pine needle island.

So she lowered the wiggling Holy Ghost to outside the barrel pine needles—prolly Michael and Gabriel Angels bringed the Holy Ghost food flies, like Jesus in the desert except Jesus prolly didn’t eat flies.

Now she flang the dirty disease waters off her hands before they killed her to death with Hell germs.

"Pray always, God can fix anything," the Holy Ghost now chirped up to her, with His holy little black eye looked up and then He ran off to catch a fly.

She ran over peeked around a garage corner.

House was still looking like all sourly sick in bed, feeling bad. His back door still hanging open from belching out badness.

Sky bluely breeze-whispered, “go tell Mommy and Daddy.”

She ran out the pretend golden jewelry gates of Thealand back inside into the living room. They were still having a mean day, still meanly looking. Daddy jailing himself behind his arms across his chest--and Mommy had drifted off, her pink loveheart drifting way out the window off into the long faraways of hills.

Theodora kneeled down fastly on the sunflower-brown carpet's deep fuzziness softer than pine needles, folded her hands like Sister said, and said a couragement prayer, flat to flat, fingers pointed up whom speedy UPSes all prayers, next day air, straight to heaven.

Theodora then jumped up: first to Daddy, remembering Daddy's sweetness, sitting her on the green arm of his big green chair over there, whom had wide soft sitting arms, him holding her, his arm around her, listening during their secret time, secrets of all her special school stuffs or that she disuncovered from secret places, like the bright orange color of lady bugs. With black spots and beautiful little heads. She and daddy had a secret talkspeech that with secret words that nobody else could understand cept them.

"Daddy," she whispered up to him."

"Not now Thea... ."

"Please, daddy,"

"Go play, Thea, mommy and daddy are busy... ."

But she was already pulling down and unfolding one of his arms anyways.

"Please! Sunny Sunflower said we gotta… . "

"What Thea?" She pulled open his arm.

"A prayer please, Daddy, to get over your mean day... ."

"Later Thea… ."

"No, now, it's a whole house mergency, even the squirrel parents said! Please!" She knelt again, "Hail Mary full of grace, please Daddy."

He looked his big blue eyes down at her. His nose was like hers, sharp at the end, more sharper than people's whom is duller with only round noses. His mouth was wide with soft lips, always close to curling up in a Daddy smile.

He walked a little to her, smiling a small tight smile. Thea jumped up and this time pulled him totally down, daddy let out his breathing airs, "all right, Thea, what prayer?"

"No, daddy, down here, kneeling in the Rosary-way like we're supposed to when we’re rosarying by my bed, don't pretend you don't know, Holy Ghost said we gotta, really lizardly said it to me, out in the backyard."

"All right, my little visionary." Daddy's knees slowly lowered, now he was kneeling down.

Mommy was still not turned back into Mommy yet, only just Mommy's empty blue dress still standing there by the window but without no mommy inside—Mommy’s heart was flied away out the window—her dress was only left in here.

Thea jumped up.

"I thought you wanted a prayer," Daddy said, still kneeling.

"Wait!" She ran to mommy, "mommy," she whispered, "we're having a holy prayer. Mommy, it's the Hail Mary one full of Grace one, please come back. Remember you told me to pray always, just like the Lizero Holy Ghost said and Sunny and Sky. Please! It's a mergency."

Mommy finally looked down at her and tried hard to stay mad. But looking at Thea couldn’t.

Theodora made the sign of the cross for Mommy; felt herself getting really filled up with Sanfication Grace now; that felt like sweet ice cream inside her. She could still see the lizard's blue throat, saying to her, ‘pray always.’ "please mommy."

Mommy's face unfrozed a little, "what sweetheart?" looking down on her precious little Thea, trying uncrush herself from angrynesses.

"A prayer mommy," Theodora said, “remember you said to pray, we're having a Hail Mary prayer," Thea now grabbed mommy's hand and hoped that her hand wasn't still sticky from where she’d stuck it in the awful barrel water. Mommy always said wash your hands before you touch anybody else's if they are dirty.

Mommy said, "We'll do it later, sweetheart, daddy and I are...are talking."

Theodora looked quickly to see if Daddy was still kneeling.

"No, you are not talking," Thea stamped her foot angrily, "you’re meaning," Pulling again on her hand, "a Hail Mary, just one, please, mommy." Pulling her towards daddy. But Mommy was still only taking little steps. Across the yellow and brown rug. Just like Sunny's flower face. And, up there on the wall, was the sweet Blessed Virgin Mary, with her blue nightgown on.

Mommy’s face was still stuck between mean and maybe a little smile--small sprout of a smile. Theodora pulled down mommy's arm, "please, gotta do our Holy Prayer right."

Theodora looked from Mommy to Daddy and pulled a small pull on daddy's arm, then touched mommy whom was looking at her--at least mommy's her eyes had got to be soft green. Not glary green like before. Softer green.

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee," Theodora said, praying in Mommy’s direction, softy taking Mommy’s biggest finger like Sunny’s petal, then looking again over at daddy, whom looked down at her for a minute-second, smiled, and rumbled back, "blessed art thou amongst women," his little blond mustache, that tickled Theodora when he kissed her on the cheek, was moving up and down--next Theodora looked again over at mommy--who finally, finally said, "and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus," with also little looks at her husband.

Theodora was next tugging both hands, daddy's and mommy's, closer and closer. House’s walls started coming back.

© Pierrino Mascarino