you know the babysitter's dead
"You Know The Babysitter's Dead," February 22, 2022 (#53)
title from Drop Dead Gorgeous (1998)
"Children of the Corn" by Stephen King (1977)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (1942; orig. 1924)
Little Children by Tom Perrotta (2004)
Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars (2013)
one line from Little Raw Souls by Steven Schwartz (2013)
last line from Little Monsters (1989)
You Know the Babysitter's Dead
You know something's wrong here. Can't you just admit it?
Destiny, historical role, numen: these were mouthfuls too large for
those benches, and tomorrow we would help you wash the dishes and
“I’m pretty sure repetition has something to do with it,” I answered
in a rectangular box that took up a little less than half of the available
flagstone path to the church doors. Two or three minutes, just a look-around,
drowning in a sea of flowers, so that we had to fight our way through the blossoming
wait for the race to begin. He loved to run. But at last the race was called. It was time to start.
The ship was above us, but we couldn’t see it. Instead, that darkest dark pushed down
suddenly to the steno pad in the center of the table with the red pen resting on top,
taking him in the direction he wanted to go, naturally. The row ended up ahead. Ended?
But I mustn’t presume to judge; must simply continue (having once begun) until the end;
after awhile the cook went in to get dinner, but the children still picked cherries.
You are one huge pounding heartbeat, but you’re not the least bit scared.
Now it was clearing, a strong breeze erasing the bad weather from
acceptance from other men because you never got it from him.
A monster? It's a pile of clothes, for Chrissakes.
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illustration from The Baby-Sitter's Club: Claudia and Mean Janine: A Graphic Novel by Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier (2008)