The Story of Lily Hammith

By Roxana Sorooshian © May, 2003

Lily Hammith was a good girl.

She obeyed her father and mother in all things, never questioning their authority. She did her chores, ate all her vegetables, and never lied or hit her baby brother or rebelled in any way.

When she woke up in the morning, at 5:45 exactly, Lily would hop out of bed and smooth the covers; then she would wash her face and get dressed, and come down to breakfast. She would then walk the two miles to the school in Rosebanning, the nearest town, where she always got good grades and obeyed Miss Dermott, to the extent that the other children sometimes called her 'Teacher's pet'.

But Lily was never upset - she didn't play with the other children anyhow, and didn't care what they called her, even when their names for her became dirty and cruel. Lily didn't care if they made fun of her patched dress or her orange eyes. Mamma said that these things couldn't be helped; that only snobs cared about clothes, and only silly folk couldn't see that Lily's orange eyes were perfect, more perfect than nasty blue or green. Mamma's own eyes were brown, but Daddy's were red.

The only time Lily had ever been taken up for fighting in school was when Richie Moss called her daddy a nasty old man, and jeered at his funny way of walking about the town, staring at all the children. Then Lily punched Richie in the nose, and it took all of Mr. Laverty's strength to pull her off.

That evening, Daddy had whipped Lily for fighting, and hugged her for standing up for him. Then he gave her a lecture not to listen to a thing the Town people said, and never ever ever to trust them. Town people were not good people, not like Daddy. Not like Lily.

After school, Lily would walk down to the drugstore and fetch Mamma's medicine. Mr. Crossley knew exactly what to give her and how much, and would usually include a piece of liquorice or a lemon drop for Lily to suck on as she walked home.

When Lily got home, she put Mamma's medicine in the bathroom and then changed into her play clothes - always hanging her school things up in the closet, very neatly - and ran down to do her chores before playing. After dusting the parlour and taking in the laundry, Lily ran outside and played in the grass until dark.

Lily was never late to supper - she came home from her solitary games at 5:45, exactly twelve hours after she woke up, and washed her hands and face. At six o'clock, the Hammithes gathered at the table, and Lily bowed her head and was silent as Daddy said grace, asking God to bless them and keep their lives happy and safe from the Wicked Ones. Then, they ate.

Lily once asked Mamma who the Wicked Ones were. Mamma hushed her, and said it wasn't a thing little girls should know about. But Lily once heard Daddy talking about it with Mamma, and from this conversation she gathered that the Wicked Ones were scary big men in blue uniforms who would, if they could manage it, come and take Daddy away and lock Lily and Mamma and the baby up in prison cells forever and ever and ever.

In her prayers every night, after her bath, Lily begged God to please keep her family safe from the Wicked Ones, and bless Mamma and the baby and Daddy, amen.

On Sundays, the Hammith family rode up to town in Daddy's pick-up. Daddy drove, with Mamma beside him and the baby on Mamma's lap. Lily sat in the truck bed when it was warm - during the winter, she huddled between Mamma and Daddy in the front seat.

In town, Daddy dropped Mamma and Lily and the baby off at the church, and then drove away. Lily would go into Sunday school, and spend two miserable hours being sneered at by the other little girls in their pretty dresses. Sunday school was taught by Miss Hampton, who had beautiful golden hair and a beautiful smile, and was very kind to Lily.

Waiting outside the church with Mamma and the baby for Daddy to come back, Lily once told Mamma that she thought Miss Hampton was the most beautiful woman God had ever created. Mamma hadn't said anything then, but after they drove home, she told Daddy about what Lily had said, and Daddy whipped Lily for that. He told her that Miss Hampton was a Town woman, and not a Hammith; that Lily mustn't ever trust beauty or apparent kindness because it would hide a soul blacker than the serpent, and also that she wouldn't be going back to the Sunday school.

Lily cried that night in her room, and wondered why God would let an evil serpent lady be so pretty and nice and wear such fine clothes. But that was the end of the Sunday trips to Rosebanning, and Lily never saw Miss Hampton again. After that, Sundays were spent at home, and Daddy read aloud from the Bible for two hours, while Lily had to mind the baby and Mamma didn't do any chores beyond that day's cooking, but wore her red flowered dress all day.

Sometimes, Daddy would go hunting in the forest behind the barn (they had no animals, but Lily played in the ramshackle building and had a little house there for her two dolls).

He would be gone for three or four days, and then come home with animals for Mamma to cook. If he went south, towards Big Honey River, he came home with ducks. If he went west, towards the Quarry, he brought home rabbits. East took him towards the foothills, and supper that night would be venison. North led to town. That was Daddy's favourite direction.

When Daddy came home after a hunting trip, Mamma would put the baby in his crib and she and Lily would run out to help unload the pick-up. The truck bed would be full of bodies - Lily did so hate to see the poor dead things' limbs sticking out, and the hands and hair and cold white faces if Daddy had been hunting at town - but she was a good little girl, and always helped carry them into the icehouse.

One time, shortly after they stopped going to church, Lily thought she saw a body with Miss Hampton's fine golden hair and pretty blue eyes. It was hard to tell, though, because Daddy came along just then and said that he would finish, Lily should go in and tend to the baby (who had started squalling just then). But Lily wondered...

That night, Lily whispered a trembling prayer to God - "Please let me be a good girl for always, and let it not hurt Mamma and Daddy too much when I have to finish things..."

It is now two weeks later, and Lily has awakened at 5:45. It's a Tuesday morning in early March, and still chilly. She gets out of bed, and smoothes the covers back. She washes her face and puts on her old, faded blue school dress. After breakfast, she takes up her books and her lunch pail and heads outside, trotting down the north road towards Rosebanning.

But today, Lily doesn't obey her parents as much as she usually does. Today, Lily doesn't go all the way up the road and to the little schoolhouse. Today, Lily drops her books and her pail in a bush at the roadside, and creeps into the barn, where she keeps her dolls and her little house.

Lily picks up the axe that she has kept hidden for a fortnight, buried deep in the mounds of straw that litter the barn floor. Lily whispers good-bye to her dollies, dear Maggie with the purple hair and poor little Bobby with only one foot, and walks quietly back to the house.

Through the window, Lily can see Mamma washing the breakfast dishes. She is humming to herself -- it sounds like A Summer Place, the only song that Mamma knows besides a few hymns. In the background, the baby is snoring softly, lying in his crib.

Lily goes around to the front door, because Mamma never lets her use the front door. It has rusted shut years ago, and the family always goes through the kitchen door. But today, Lily wants to use the main entry.

A few blows of the axe bring the door open. At the noise, Mamma has jumped, and as Lily smashes through the door, Mamma's hand goes instinctively for the butcher knife in its place by the stove.

"Lily!" Mamma cries out, both relieved and scared. "What...?"

Lily doesn't let her get any further than that. Lily raises the axe up high, and brings it down low, chopping down hard, with all the strength that a chubby little girl of eight years can muster...

The baby is crying now. Lily tells him to be quiet, and when he doesn't shut up right away, she makes him obey her...

The rest of the day is spent cleaning the axe and playing in the blood. Lily has left Maggie and Bobby in the barn, but the baby makes an excellent doll, once she sews his head back on with Mamma's needle and some black thread. And there's always more fun to look forward to...

Daddy was out working in the fields today. He pulls up in front of the house, the pick-up rattling to a stop. Lily drops the baby-doll onto the ground (it makes a sick thud when it lands on its face, but Lily doesn't notice) and runs to the kitchen door. She is holding the axe above her head.

Daddy is tired. He's been working hard today, back-breaking work clearing the rocks from the field, and worst of all, when he went into town to buy a new hoe, Mr. Laenscher from the hardware store gave him a funny look. Daddy's worried that they might have to move again, and not go back to Rosebanning, but find a new town. There aren't many more little children in Rosebanning...

Daddy is too tired to notice that the front door is now so much kindling.

Daddy walks through the kitchen entrance and it is then that Lily strikes. The axe isn't very sharp, and Daddy is stronger than Mamma or the baby, so it takes three blows before Lily gets him down. Before the end, Daddy screams, and chokes on his own blood. Before the end, Daddy grabs the knife from Mamma's cold hand and brings it up towards Lily, screaming and choking and panting. So Lily chops off the hand that holds the knife.

It only takes one more swing of the axe to sever Daddy's head from his body, and then Lily sits down, her blue school dress wet and red with blood. The axe falls from her hand, and she falls asleep on the kitchen floor.

Lily Hammith is a good little girl. She's always very obedient - she always minds her Mamma and Daddy, and listens to what they say. But more than that, she listens to what the screaming children in her mind say. Lily always obeys the voices in her mind. She's a good girl.