February 1987
Break On Through to the Other Side
Jimny Adams should have died that day.
She whistled on her way to the river, making up the tune as she was mostly immune to music. She could take it or leave it. What she did take was five one-dollar coins from her father’s coin box. Since it was padlocked, she’d manoeuvred them through the slot with a butter knife.
Jimny did this regularly, causing her mum and dad to shoot her suspicious glances. They couldn’t accuse her, though, not with the shiny lock unharmed. Her parents couldn’t imagine how she managed it, because they lacked imagination. Already, at eleven-going-on-twelve, Jimny was wilier than they’d ever be. They would never know she’d just wolfed down a forbidden Snickers bar purchased with their money.
Jimny couldn’t understand their prohibition of snack food anyway. Why not do the things that felt good?
It never occurred to her that some of her parents’ anxiety was caused by their wayward little girl. Extra dental bills they could barely afford, reluctance to leave her alone with ride-on tractors, or with access to red metal paint for the barn, which she’d used to draw roses on her bedroom wall. It wasn’t that she meant harm – sometimes, she even felt guilty when her folks got upset. She was always sorry, but she was too distracted by the next fascinating thing to not do it again.
This would make her mother, Jude, purse her lips, roll her eyes to heaven, and admonish Jimny. ‘Away with the fairies again.’
Jimny was often grounded, which she…
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