Die Smiling by Linda Ladd

us.”
    â€œShe won’t kill me, not right before the pageant. She’ll kill you.” Sissy giggled as she tilted the bottle and the older one watched the precious makeup drip into the sink.
    â€œStop, stop, Sissy, please, she’ll be back any minute!”
    â€œThen put in on, right now. I want to see if it makes you look better. Do it, or I’ll throw it on the floor and break it!”
    Sissy raised her arm and held the precious bottle up high, and the older one swallowed hard, but Sissy’d do it. Sissy loved to get her and Bubby in trouble. Terror clutched the older one’s heart, and she quickly scooped her fingers through the makeup in the sink and rubbed it on her cheeks. It did hide some of her freckles, and she stared at herself in awe, always having imagined that maybe someday she could look as pretty as Sissy.
    When she heard Momma’s key in the lock, she grabbed a towel and tried to rub it off, then froze in utter horror when Sissy suddenly hurled the expensive bottle of makeup onto the floor. It broke into a million pieces and spattered tan liquid everywhere, just as Momma appeared at the bathroom door.
    â€œMomma, look what she did!” cried Sissy. “She said she didn’t want me to look pretty today because she didn’t! She said she wanted me to be ugly like her!”
    Momma’s eyes went to the mess on the floor and then back up to the older one’s face. Rage overtook her, black and terrible and violent. She dropped a sack of powdered doughnuts on the counter and grabbed the older one by the hair. “You stupid, destructive little brat, I’m gonna teach you to leave Sissy alone! Sissy, you get in there on the bed and stay there.”
    Sissy ran from the bathroom, but she turned in the doorway and stuck out her tongue at the older one, just before Momma slammed the door and trapped the older one inside. Sputtering with fury, she grabbed her by the throat and pressed her back against the sink, and then she jerked the older one up bodily and threw her down into the bathwater. The older one choked and clawed against the terrible grip on her throat, but Momma was gone away inside one of her furies, and she held her too tightly for her to get loose. She thrust her head down under the water and held it there.
    The older one struggled desperately, but couldn’t fight free, and she stared up through soapy water that burned her eyes like fire and saw Momma’s face, red with wrath and effort, as she held her submerged. This was the look that was the worst, this was when Momma did awful things. She held her breath and twisted desperately until Momma jerked her up again, and she coughed and sucked in air, but Momma forced her down under again, despite how she cried and begged her to stop. She fought hard, but Momma was too strong, especially when she was so mad. When the older one thought she could not hold her breath any longer, when she thought she was going to drown and maybe it would be better than having to live with Momma, her Momma jerked her out, and she gasped and choked for breath.
    Momma ground her words out between clenched teeth. “Don’t you ever touch Sissy’s makeup again, you hear me? Don’t touch it, don’t even look at it, or you’ll get a lot worse than this, you understand me?”
    â€œI won’t, Momma, I promise I won’t,” the older one said weakly, but she didn’t cry until after Momma had stalked outside and slammed the door. Then she sat up in the cold water and cried hard into a towel, so Momma wouldn’t hear and come back and punish her again.

Three
    Sixteen minutes after I’d put in the call, Buckeye’s white crime scene van nosed up the driveway and pulled in behind my Explorer and two other sheriff’s vehicles. Buck asked me if I was okay and wanted to take a look at my arm, but I told him it could wait. So as they donned protective gear and removed a couple of