chapter 16(3)

All I had wanted was to feel its skin like the other kids did, but instead, it died because of me. My touch killed it. “Why are you crying?” my brother asked, looking under the gap of the cubicle door. “It died, I touched it and it died,” I sobbed. My brother crawled under the gap to me. “What died?” he asked, confusion clear on his face, and I opened my hand, the small lizard still in my palm. “He isn’t dead. He is sleeping, like granny Marge; she looks dead too when she sleeps until she snores. Lizards don’t snore, that’s why he looks dead,” Eziah told me, stroking his fingers down from its head to its tail, the lizard squirmed, and its heart started beating quickly as it moved in my palm, making my heart leap with happiness. “See, he had a nap, like Marge does when she naps on the couch with her mouth wide open,” Eziah laughed and I managed a weak smile, feeling relief flood through me, but even then something deep inside of me, I didn’t truly believe him. I had done something to th