Naked Tao by Robert Grant

upward exposing yellow teeth. Her face got bigger and I felt a weight on my legs, pinning them to the ground. She planted her hands next to my ears. 
    I didn’t like the look in her eyes, so I focused on a big vein throbbing in her neck. It made me think of the snake with big sharp teeth I saw on television the night before. I was pretty sure she had one crawling inside of her, and it scared me. When she opened her mouth I expected it to crawl out and bite me. Instead, the pungent scent of garlic blasted me. I crinkled my nose. Yuck, I hate garlic. 
    “You little pervert,” hissed the fat woman. 
    I was confused and scared but managed to mumble, “What’s a pervert?” 
    She grabbed my ear and twisted it hard. “A nasty boy who can’t keep his pants on,” she said. “Outside even, where everyone can see your nakedness…you’re such a perverted little flasher. What’s wrong with you, boy? Didn’t your mother teach you anything?” 
    My ear hurt badly from the twisting she gave it and I desperately wanted the safety of my mother’s arms. “I think I hear my mother calling,” I cried. 
    “So the little pervert is a liar as well,” she said as she inched her face closer. 
    The movement shifted more weight to my legs and my knees were starting to hurt. I tried to squirm free but couldn’t budge her. A wave of hopelessness washed over me. 
    “What do you want,” I asked. 
    “I’m going to make certain you never expose yourself to another innocent little girl,” she hissed. 
    She even sounded like a snake. I shuddered. 
    “We didn’t…we didn’t do nothing,” I said. 
    “Nothing…nothing, he says,” she snarled. “You think molesting my little girl is nothing. You’re a pervert like the rest of them.” 
    I didn’t know anything about molesting, but it didn’t sound good. Maybe she was talking about the butterfly. 
    “We…we didn’t…didn’t hurt the butterfly,” I stammered. 
    It didn’t seem possible, but her face screwed up into a tighter ball of anger. 
    “You…you insolent little punk,” she sputtered spraying a little garlic flavored spittle on my face. 
    I moved my hand to wipe the nasty stuff from my face, but she grabbed my wrist and slammed it back to the ground. 
    “How dare you raise a hand to me,” she screamed. “I’m going to beat the devil out of you.” 
    She raised a menacing hand to her ear and poised it for the first blow. 
    “Beat me,” I said in voice that was barely audible. 
    Something warm and wet drizzled to the small of my back. The sour smell of pee was strong and I was afraid she would get even angrier if it got on her clothes. 
    “No…no please,” I begged. “I didn’t do nothing.” 
    A small hand grasped the fat’s woman’s fist and I heard the girl’s voice plead, “Mama…mama, please don’t hurt him.” 
    Her mother’s head whipped in the girl’s direction. “How dare you interfere with me,” the fat woman said. “So you want to protect this little pervert. Then you’ll get the first beating.” 
    I was relieved when she climbed off of me, but it was short lived as I watched her snap a limb from a tree and strip its branches. She quickly ran her finger tips along its length and then shifted from the switch to me. Slowly they traveled downward and stopped at my thingy. The tip of her tongue moistened her lips. I didn’t like the way she looked at me at all and reached for my pants, but they weren’t at my ankles. Abruptly, she pulled her eyes from me and turned to the girl. 
    “Someday you will thank me for this,” she said. Giving the girl a cruel smile, she added, “I’ll beat the wickedness out you yet, you little slut.” 
    With that, she tore into my Ginny with a vengeance. It was brutal. Ginny’s screams pierced the quiet little neighborhood. The thing that scared me the most was the way her mother’s smile got a little bigger with each blow. 
    I wanted to make her stop, but I couldn’t