Over the Fence

The fat one held one of the two babies close to her as she looked through the fence at me. The other baby lay on the blanket beside the fat one. It was crying and twisting back and forth while reaching upward with its two chubby little hands. The fat one kept clutching at the baby in her arms and staring at me. She paid no attention to the other child. I couldn’t really make out the fat one’s face, but I could tell she was afraid of me. It might have been the way she sat: one shoulder rolled toward me and over her baby as if to protect it from the monster on the other side of the fence. It might have been the way the fat one just stared: I had smiled as soon as I saw her sitting on the blanket with the children, but she had only clutched at the child in her arms and stared. A small boy ran between us cutting an angled path in the tall grass on the other side of the fence. Startled by the running boy, the fat one’s eyes suddenly darted away from mine. After the running boy had passed, I noticed the fat one looking down at the second child: she looked up at me and back at the child—up and down, up and down. Several minutes passed, and I stared at the fat one as she looked up at me and down at the second child. She seemed surprised that it was there. The running boy returned retracing the angled path he had cut in the grass; this time he was screaming.

The skinny one appeared from behind the small barn. The screams of the running boy had roused her from her work. While the boy screamed and the skinny one ran to him, the fat one began to rock back and forth with the baby that was in her arms. The second child was no longer reaching toward the sky with its chubby little hands. As soon as the running boy started screaming, the second child had begun crying. It might have been the crying that started the fat one rocking. It might have been the screaming. Or it might have been me—the monster on the other side of the fence.

The skinny one caught up to the running boy whose screams had begun to subside. She whispered something into his ear and he disappeared into the house. The skinny one went over to the blanket where the fat one sat rocking and clutching the baby. The skinny one whispered something onto the ear of the fat one. The fat one looked back at me with fear and panic in her eyes as she struggled to get to her feet. The second child had stopped crying and was making a gurgling sound and wiggling its legs. I could smell it from my side of the fence. The fat one had gotten to her feet. She looked at me and then at the skinny one. She clutched the baby in her arms and turned toward the house. For a second, I thought she might look down at the second child, but she didn’t. I heard the door slam and rattle shut as the fat one went inside. Then I heard her scream.

The skinny one looked at me, and I smiled. She was not afraid. She scooped the baby up off of the blanket, held it close to her, and walked toward me. The child had stopped gurgling, but its legs were still wiggling. The skinny one stopped a few feet from the fence. She looked down at the baby, and then up at me.

The baby sailed upward for a few moments, and then it began to fall through the air. It hit the ground just in front of me, and it began to cry. They always cried when they hit the ground. The skinny one looked at me for a moment before turning away. I had finished my meal before she got inside.