Black Widow

In a world once she had been alive. Laughing and crying, playing
happily with her baby brother by her side. Yet, now her baby brother
was older and she was still the same only paler and still playing with
him. He was ten now, she was seven and white. Ten years old and two
years younger then here, he would always be her baby brother though and
he would always look up to her.

Sometimes they played ball together, throwing the ball high and it
would bounce, sometimes she would catch it and sometimes she wouldn't,
or couldn't. They only played for a short while until momma came back,
she didn't like him playing with his sister, and she said she wasn't
real. No, she wasn't real.

Jennifer's gravestone was only a few blocks away, flowers lay upon the
cold stone slab every Sunday and her mother was the only one who
brought these flowers, crying for her little girl. Tony never took her
flowers though; he played ball with her every Sunday and prayed to her
every other day but Sunday.

Tony cried one Sunday, because his mother fell ill like Jennifer had,
all cold and clammy, and in a lot of pain. The doctor took his mother
to the hospital where they found a spider had bitten her, a deadly
spider and she cried in pain and sweated, once she couldn't breath.
Tony stayed at his nanas, but he wanted to be back at home to let
Jennifer know how her mom was and if she was going to be okay, because
she had to, didn't she?

Jennifer was all alone; her mother had been taken to hospital after
being bitten by the Black Widow. They had said that Jennifer wouldn't
die when that same spider had bitten her, the black one with red bum.
But she had been bitten and no one came to find her, mute at birth what
could she do? Not even screaming helped and thrashing about wouldn't
help either. Jennifer hated her mother now, she was mute too and now it
had happened again, who would Tony have to look after him? Not a mother
and not a sister. Tony would have no one.

Slowly Jennifer rocked her self, she felt no air and she felt no
gravity. Mommy was gone and so was Tony, Jennifer was all alone. She
was the first person to have died from a bite since 1969, so her mother
had been told, not there was another one going to be killed, since
1969.

Tony ran in, tears masked his face and he stumbled upon a ball.
Jennifer There on the floor too he saw the spider and something else.
Momma couldn't die, he heard Jennifer say as she stood beside him
silently and clearly&;#8230; Momma couldn't die, she repeated and
touched his shoulder. Jennifer was no longer there, as if she no longer
existed. Tony bit his lip and captured the spider in a glass jar,
careful not to touch it.

The doctors nodded and Tony's mother was still alive as the doctors
nodded and shook heir heads sometimes. Tony watched until his nana told
him off for running away like that, but when she looked into the room
where her daughter lay, her torment subsided as a regular heartbeat
stayed and she was stabilized. The consultant came out and smiled,
telling them that all would be okay, Laura DeMarco was going to
survive, they had pumped her with drugs, lessened here severe pain and
her cramps on the soles of her feet arms, legs and abdomen.

Tony wondered as his mother started to get better, he wondered why so
suddenly, just as if it had been a miracle. Had God just pointed his
finger and said rise? She came back home a few days ago and said
something funny, she said Jennifer had been there next to her, snuggled
up and loving. She said she had held Jenny in her arms, but how could
that be true? Jennifer was here at home waiting to be played with every
Sunday when momma went to take flowers to the little gravestone. This
Sunday that did not stop, she went and took flowers to Jennifer's
gravestone while Tony waited o play ball.

Momma always complained that Tony never came; she accused him of many
things when she was tired or angry, this time she said nothing, but
looked stiff and sadder. Maybe she really had seen Jennifer and she had
snuggled up to her mother, but how? Jennifer never left the house, she
couldn't this was where she had died; mute, alone and without help.
Dead. Tony felt cold, he felt cold as he waited for Jennifer and she
didn't come. Then he felt colder.

Momma came home and she whimpered a cry before she beckoned Tony to
embrace her as nana helped Laura down into a chair. Tony embraced his
mother and then he cried, next Sunday he went with momma to lay flowers
down upon Jennifer's stony grave.

The next day Tony came again on his own, not telling momma or nana
where he went. He sat down by Jennifer's grave and placed the ball down
by the side. Once two children used to play ball and now they still
did. Tony walked away and he looked back to see the ball moving gently
to and fro, to and fro. In the wind? In her hands? Only Tony knew as he
walked away with a smile. Playing ball to and fro. To and fro.