Harry And Georgia

• Allysha Agostinello, Grade y9
• Short Story
• 2009

Harry and Georgia

The repulsively familiar sound of their mother’s petite fragile body being slammed against the battered beige walls, ricocheted throughout the summer dried paddocks. Georgia’s long slender arm persistently dragged her twin brother, threading her fingers through his. To her constant protest, Harry foolishly insisted on leaving a trail of skittles for their mother to follow and keep herself safe. She never did. At last Georgia inhaled the familiar scent of musty horse manure, as they crept into their hidden cove among the sleeping animals and the tetchy hay, safe from drunken leering eyes.

Like a choreographed piece, both the children’s faces that barely showed traces of puberty, shut their eyes simultaneously to let Georgia’s childish voice consume their minds with dreams of mystical lands. Lands where children never dreaded the heavy clunks of their stepfather’s footsteps.

As dawn chased away the last dredges of night, the twins stood breathlessly, before the indecent bruised figure of their mother lying sprawled in a dimly lit corner. Their stepfather, the Monster, had disappeared with the stars, but that did not ensure security. The phone hung lifelessly from the wall, no means to contact help. Georgia clutched Harry to her side and marched determinedly toward the deserted road.

Countless hours of meandering dead ends and the entire horizon brought the teasing golden line dividing sky and road. An aged man supporting a set of wispy grey hair slowed his black Holden. ‘Candy Cottage’ gleaming on the side, entranced the starved twins, promising luxurious sweets from his factory. Neither child examined his dark pupils dilating excitedly, or the pungent odor of stale alcohol that consumed the car.
Too late Georgia heard the deafening click of car doors imprisoning them. As she turned, Harry was already gazing blindly at the man removing plastic grey hair revealing an all too familiar profile. “No! How did you find us?” Georgia’s face contorted with rage as she struggled to voice her query. The Monster sitting inches away didn’t answer, instead pulled a plastic zip lock bag from his cheap cotton pocket and hummed a tuneless melody as he slowly popped into his wet parted lips, Harry’s skittles.

At the prospect of their tragically hopeless mother being propelled into a cauldron of boiling water, the twins remained captives long after the marks of adolescence passed from their hardened faces. The Monsters health had deteriorated fast, but his heart as mean and empty as always, played one last game with the children.

‘Harry’, uttered Georgia, her voice thick with indecision. His limp body fell to the floor, but Georgia’s attention never faltered from the figure strung above a boiling pot, just as the Monster promised. She dug her insipid fingers deeper into her side, relishing at the warmth the blood brought. The second body dropped, taking the remaining traces of Georgia’s sanity. As she beat her whole body against the mouldy stone floor, no tears would fall; no screams would pass her bleeding lips. One of them must survive; her mother’s death would not be in vain.

Concentrating entirely on protecting her beloved brother, Georgia attacked the unsuspecting Monster and threw them both into the old factory oven. As the dangerously beautiful flames engulfed their protesting bodies, the stench of burning flesh awoke Harry. As the scene unfolded before his eyes, he caught a glimpse of his sister’s calm face through the suffocating smoke and watched as she wedged the glass door shut. Freeing the world and freeing her brother from one more monster.


Allysha Agostinello