DF

by Jacqueline Lawson

LITTLE JENNIE MOUSE

The angel looked drunk. It swayed and wobbled at the tip of the tree as Donnie stepped back unsteadily and tried to see it through her tears.

"God-awful lookin' angel," she muttered, sinking down heavily next to the bottle on the floor. Her hand went out to pick it up but she drew back and covered her face instead. Tears trickled out from between her fingers as she hugged herself and cried bitterly.

"Timmie, Johnny, where are you?" she called, raising her streaked face to the tree. "Best' little nephews an aunt ever had. They don't care who ya love. It's alla same to them. Where are they? I'm gonna get 'em."

She lurched abruptly to her knees, then sank back chagrinned. She took another swallow from the bottle.

"Far, far away," she mumbled, cradling the bottle tenderly in her two arms and rocking back and forth.

"Far away-far away." She wove the incantation and round the room,

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