Powder
by Hamish Dee
In the Burger Joint during the peak of lunch traffic, a woman with a kiwi-sized bruise on her forehead partially concealed by the bangs of her badly permed hair ate her fries using her ring finger and thumb, being constrained by a wrist brace and bandaged index finger. The eyes of her six year old were fixed on her as he swiveled to and fro in his hard plastic chair, while her three year old scratched a flaking mustard stain on the pant leg of his red, corduroy overalls. The boys, each with the blond hair that fades with age, ate in silence, not daring to be the first to speak. From a table across the aisle, a handicap confined to a wheelchair howled and wildly swung his lanky arms. The older son turned to look.
“Pete, don’t stare.” Mom said.
Obediently, he turned around, but continued to listen to the handicap’s wailing.
“Mommy, what’s wrong with him,” Pete asked too loudly.
“He’s retarded so just don’t look at him,” she whispered.
“Wawawawa,” imitated Lewis, causing Pete a fit of laughter.
“Stop, now, both of you.” Mom interrupted.
Pete quickly turned to his child-sized burger, took a few bites, and then returned to swiveling.
“Mommy, is Lewis retarded?”
She gave a deep sigh. “No, he’s just discovering his voice.”
“Oh.”
While Lewis took a drink from his two-handled juice cup, Pete slurped the remainder of his orange soda. He pressed a napkin to his lips and shook his head, smearing the sides of his mouth with an orange stain.
Mom smiled at this, but teared suddenly. She covered her eyes with her uninjured hand, and took a few hard swallows. “I got something for you two while you were in daycare.”
“Really, what is it?” said Pete.
“It’s a surprise, you’ll see it when we get home.”
“We’re going home!”
“When we get to new home.”
* * *
The family entered their duplex. The ground floor was a living room containing a sofa and dozens of well-organized boxes covered with a heavy dust and a narrow kitchen with open cupboards and an unplugged refrigerator surrounded by a sticky brown stain on the white linoleum. Mom pointed upstairs and the boys scurried up the carpeted steps into their room. There were still more boxes, oak framed bunkbeds, a marble-topped chest beneath the window, and on top of it rested a rectangular aquarium.
Pete kneeled next to Lewis in front of the aquarium, studying its interior. It was ordained with a wood chip floor, an ashtray filled with green pellets and sunflower seeds, a glass water bottle suspended from the side, a plastic igloo with a hole in its top and a ball of tan fur inside, and a spinning metallic wheel with a small creature inside running furiously. They stared blankly at the scene within. Pete, awestruck by what he saw, swore that all four of the creature’s legs left the ground at the same time as it sprinted.
Mom walked in unnoticed and opened the blinds. Pete turned, and threw his arms around his mother’s legs. She kneeled to give him a hug, and kiss him on the head.
“Do you like them?”
“Yes, Mommy. Can I hold it?”
She lifted the wire grating from the cage, and put her unbandaged hand invitingly into the cage. The wheel stopped spinning, and the figure peeked out curiously. As it drew closer to her hand, twitching its nose all the while, she gently scooped it up and she held it in her hand, allowing the boys to pet it. The boys alternated each pet, and the creature did not resist.
“Is it a rat?”
“No, it’s a hamster. Think you can hold on to it without dropping?”
Pete nodded and held out his hands. The whiskers tickled him, and its feet were rough against his hands. The hamster merely stared back at Pete with his beady, black eyes. When Pete resumed petting him its tiny ears would drop, and perk up again as the hand went away.
“Me hold too,” said Lewis.
“There’s another one sleeping inside.” Mom turned over the igloo, and the second hamster lifted its head from the ball position. Again, she scooped it up, and gave it to Lewis. He gripped it by its stomach, leaving its bottom half to dangle.
“Here,” she said taking it back, “why don’t I hold it and you pet it?”
“No. Me hold.”
“Well tell you what, we’ll put him in his ball instead.” She returned it to its cage, and retrieved a hollow, plastic globe out of a bag next to the chest. It was hollow and transparent with blue tint, with to rows of narrow slits for air. Mom eased the hamster inside, closed the hatch, and put it on the ground. The hamster kept still for a few moments, sitting up within its ball. It took a few uncertain steps in one direction, and then another. It slowly discovered that the ball moved with it, and began a ceaseless trot, while Lewis followed.
After an hour or so, they were returned to their cage. One headed for the food dish and the other for the water. The boys stood on each side of their mother, still watching their new pets.
‘So what are you going to name them,” Mom asked.
“Call hampster, Lewis,” said Lewis.
“Lewis!” Mom said with mock surprise, “Hmm. How about Lucas? I’d hate to mix you two up.”
Lewis laughed and approvingly said, “Lucas.”
“What about yours, Pete?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well you see the speckles of white fur on his back? Why don’t we call him Powder?”
“Powder. Okay, Mommy.”
* * *
A few days later during their afternoon nap, Pete awoke to his mother’s muffled voice from downstairs. He adjusted to his side to try and hear, but couldn’t. He looks down from the top bunk to his pets to see that Lucas was on his hind legs stuffing his cheeks with pellets, and Powder, as usual, was running in the wheel. His mother’s speech turned to yelling; she always talked with Father like that. His stomach tightened. He stared at the ceiling and tried to block it out. Shortly after, he heard the impact of the phone hit the receiver, and his mother bawling as she climbed up the stairs, past their door, into her room. Then he couldn’t hear any more.
Pete leaned over the side to see Lewis sprawled on top of his blanket.
“Hey, Lewis. Wake up,” Pete whispered.
He answered by snoring slightly, so Pete flung a pillow at him. Lewis scrunched his face, and started to groan.
“Hey, let’s get up and play with the hamsters.”
Lewis didn’t answer, but eased himself off the bed, while Pete climbed down the ladder at the foot of his bunk. They stood by the cage, watching Lucas stuff his face and Powder stroll in his wheel. Pete took the lid off to watch them from above. Lucas looked up at him, but Powder took no notice. Then Powder accelerated into a full sprint. Whimsically, Pete ran his hand against the wheel in the direction it was spinning, causing it turn faster. Powder stumbled forward in the wheel until it slowed enough for him to get a grip, and then he rocked forward and back, finally resting at the bottom of the wheel. Powder wandered out of the wheel and stood on its hind legs, looking about with its nose twitching inquisitively.
Lewis looked up at his brother, to the hamster, and then to his brother again. Pete put the lid on the cage, then went to a box to rifle through his toys. He found a coloring book to draw in. He hunched over it, and drew in silence.
* * *
That night, the family ate dry tuna sandwiches on napkins upon the floor. They had no television and the white walls were still bare, but at least the boxes seemed to be disappearing and the shelves filling. Mom had her bug eyed glasses because her contacts were bothering her again. She took her headache medicine, and downed it with her diet coke. Immediately after, she nodded her head directing them upstairs and they went without complaint, leaving their napkins and crusts on the living room floor.
From the boy’s room nothing was heard for the rest of the night. The hamster cage produced an unusual amount of noise. They both awoke to the sound of plastic being chewed and wood chips shuffled furiously, and again when a commotion was heard outside. Neither got up to investigate.
Lewis was the first one up the following morning. He saw the sunlight peering through the blind, and was bewildered at having woken up on his own. He stood at the base of the bed and called, “Pee, Pee.”
“Go back to bed again. You’re not supposed to be up,” Pete said.
“Pee, where Mommy?”
Pete made the same realization. It was daylight, but Mom didn’t come to wake them. Pete climbed down, and listened. He heard only the wheel turning behind him. He turned to see the cage was in some disarray. During the night, the hamsters had widened the doorway of their igloo, and made a hill of woodchips against the corner of the cage. They ignored that for the moment, and went to door. Still there was no noise, so Pete reached for the doorknob, and peeked out. Mom’s door was open, so they went and saw a pile of dark blue sheets in pile on the queen size bed, and a writing desk with a small lamp on top, but apart from that nothing. They crept down the stairs, and to a figure they found sleeping on the sofa. She was a thin, long faced woman with ashen skin and pepper gray hair.
“Who she,” asked Lewis.
“She’s that lady from Christmas last year.’
“Where Mommy?”
The woman raised her eyebrows without opening her eyes.
“You boys are up already,” the woman said as she sat up, “Well don’t you remember me.
“Aunt...” guessed Pete.
“That’s right Aunt Jackie.”
“Where Mommy?”
“Oh, she just needs time to rest, so I’m gonna take care of you for a few days.”
Pete nodded in comprehension. Lewis let out a high-pitched squeal and cried. Aunt leaned forward to give him a hug. He didn’t resist. He was only venting.
“Stop crying and show me where the pots and pans are so I can make you breakfast.”
* * *
Aunt brought her own television to watch, but neither Pete nor Lewis was terribly interested. That afternoon, instead, Pete watched Lewis chase the Lucas in the ball from his bunk.
“Let’s put Powder in too,” Pete said.
At first the hamsters just sat up, uncertainly. One would take a step and the other wouldn’t. They would begin moving together, but one would want to change directions. Eventually, Powder started in one direction and Lucas learned to follow. They collided with the wall, and quickly knew to run alongside it. Pete suddenly moved to block their path. When they stopped in front of him he held them in place with his hands on each side of the ball. The hamsters tried to move the ball in each direction, but did not move. Pete spun the ball and gave it a kick. The creatures clung to the sides of the ball as the world turned quickly about them, until collapsed in the center, stumbling over one another. Lewis laughed excitedly. When the hamsters stopped Lucas shivered, not daring to move, but Powder desperately tried to get rolling again.
“Want to do something really fun, Lewis? Let’s push them down the stairs.”
Lewis clapped with glee. He wrapped his arms around the ball, and marched it to the stairs edge. They both keeled in front of it.
“Do you want to push them over?”
“They get hurt?”
“No, the stairs are soft. They won’t get hurt,” Pete said as he ran his fingers over the tan threads of the tufted carpet.
Pete edged the ball over the ledge. There were a series of weak thuds, as it rolled. The creatures within landed on each impact and were tossed again, until they came to the bottom and then the wall. Aunt didn’t take notice, so Pete went to retrieve the hamster undetected. He picked them up, and dumped them in their cage with the many droppings they left in behind. Lucas lay on its belly and seemed to be shivering. Powder circled the cage repeatedly kicking up wood chips and knocking over its food pile.
They would have a few more rides down the stairs while Aunt was there, as there was little else to do. The boys would only see Aunt at meals, the rest of the time she sat mesmerized by the TV’s eternal glow. The remainder of the day they would spend laying about the room, listlessly pacing about, trying to fight cabin fever, as they were not allowed to leave the house. They emptied their toy boxes spread them across the floor into a brightly colored, plastic sea, until...
* * *
...the sixth night, Pete awoke in the late hours of the night, not knowing why right away. He heard tap...tap...tap...clang, knowing exactly what Pete tried to see what he could from his bunk. He turned to the red light of the clown nightlite, and from there he saw a small black figure pass by.
“What that noise?” asked Lewis groggily.
“I think the hamsters are out. I’m turning on the light.”
The light strained their eyes, but Pete eased through the mess toward the cage where he could see nothing moving inside. Once his vision improved, he saw the wheel tipped against the cage wall and a slight gap in the wire grating above it. He looked around him and saw nothing moving amongst the clutter. Pete returned his attention and saw Lucas laying on its belly, its eyes open and tiny pink feet kicking rhythmically. The hamster looked wrong; Pete wondered if he might be sick. Lucas thrust forward suddenly, and it seemed a large piece of flesh opened like door on a hinge. A pool of deep red blood rested within, and miniscule white worms were swimming within. Pete’s mouth dropped; he was shocked at first, but then amazed, without ever changing his expression. He soon found the courage to look closer. The maggots, he found the most interesting, diving in and out of the pool like the tales of microscopic white whales. Lucas’s head rested unbalanced upon the ground. The eye that pointed upward was pulsating, as if Lucas was trying to close it, but couldn’t.
“Where hamster?”
“Come here and you can see.”
Lewis came off his bed one leg at a time, still wearing a yellow t-shirt and sneakers. He looked at the hamster then up at Pete, puzzled. In an attempt to make him understand, Pete reached into the cage slowly, and carefully jabbed the fat, motionless hamster. When Lucas did not react Lewis did, by making a long, high-pitched squeak and running to the bed to cry into his pillow. Pete, instead, kneeled in front of the glass cage, looking at its protruding teeth, the bites on its legs and face, and the wriggling maggots so actively consuming the creature. When he realized Lewis was no longer crying but asleep he went to bed as well.
* * *
Morning came. Pete was up first. The night’s events were still fresh in his thoughts. He had another look. It was still there, but the blood had dried and the maggots dispersed. Pete realized the thing couldn’t stay so he went downstairs to ask his Aunt for assistance.
But as suddenly as she left she was home again. Mom was at the kitchen sink scrubbing dishes with a green and yellow sponge.
“Mommy,” Pete said, sneaking up on her to give her a hug.
Mom turned around and held him with sudsy, but healed hands. “Hi, Petey are you and your brother alright.”
Pete nodded. “We’re fine. Lucas dead though.”
“Really,” she pushed him back a little, “Is it still in there?”
Pete nodded.
“Mommy can’t see that right now. Can you take this garbage bag upstairs and throw it away please, sweetie,” she said wringing her hands.
“Ok. Where’s Aunt Jackie?”
“She had to go home and wanted to get there by dark. Did you guys have fun? Did she take good care of you?”
“She watched TV a lot.”
“Oh. Well go clean up the mess, and I’ll be up in a minute.”
“Oh, yeah. Powder got out.”
“Well I’ll be up to help you find him after Lucas is gone, ok.”
Pete tossed Lucas in the bag, and threw it in the outdoor garbage can. Lewis woke up within a few minutes, and was excited to see his mother there though he cried a bit. Together the three of them went up to find powder.
“Once we find him we’ll clean up this mess too,” said Mom, “Just stay at the door and tell me if you see it.”
She moved first along the skirting board to find a few droppings and in the corner there were tangles of threads from chewed carpet. Along the next wall sat empty cardboard boxes. Mom noticed the shavings on the floor and a hole in the bottom box on the corner. She found Powder cowering inside chewing on its nails.
“I found it. See, it’s ok.”
As she put Powder in its cage she felt a sting on the side of her palm and dropped the hamster, which landed safely in its food dish.”
“Tssss. That vicious thing drew blood.”
Mom ran to put peroxide and a Band-Aid on. Pete moved to close the lid and ensure Powder didn’t get out again.
* * *
Over the red and white checkered cloth of the
When they returned home the boys marched upstairs to finish cleaning the room and Mom to her room to finish unpacking. As they opened their door, simultaneously, Pete and Lewis saw that Powder wasn’t moving about its cage. After a closer look, they found it lifeless underneath its wheel. This time Pete was not shocked and Lewis did not cry.
“Mommy, Powder dead too,” shouted Lewis.
“Petey, I don’t want to see. Can you just put it where you put the other one?”