Skinny Matilda's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Matilda walked home from the country grocery store with the paper bag against her chest. The peach inside was warm through the paper. She kept her eyes on the dirt road and did not count. She was almost to her gate when she heard a voice on the other side of the hedge. It was her neighbor, the old man with the white beard and the plaid shirt, the one who crossed his arms at everything. He was talking to another neighbor over the fence. He said her name. Matilda stopped walking. "Skin and bones in a swimsuit," the old man said. "At the register. Bought a peach like that was a normal thing to wear." The other neighbor made a small sound. The old man kept going. He said someone should call her mother. He said pink hair. He said she must be sick in the head. Matilda's hand tightened on the bag. The count tried to start behind her eyes. One for his voice. Two for the listener's laugh. She felt her knees want to fold. Then she remembered the dog's weight on her foot. She pressed her bare heel into the dirt until she could feel small stones. She breathed in once. She walked around the hedge and stood in front of him. He went quiet. His arms stayed crossed. Matilda held up the paper bag. "I bought a peach," she said. "That's all you saw. If you want to know anything else, ask me." Her voice shook but the words came out whole. The old man's face pinched. He said she should put on some clothes. Matilda said she was wearing clothes. The other neighbor looked at the ground. Matilda did not wait for more. She walked past them to her gate and did not look back. Inside her kitchen she set the bag on the table and sat down. Her hands were shaking again, but the count had not started. She had cut the gossip off at its source, in front of a witness, before it could travel to her. She ate the peach over the sink. The juice ran down her wrist. She had spoken up for herself twice now in three days. She wrote it down on the back of an envelope so she would remember when the count came back.