A List of Fears
by Christy Crutchfield
1) A Child Could Smash His Face Open Here
They still haven’t taken down the Grimace Bounce & Bend. He’s standing like an ostracized kid. He’s wide-eyeing the Play Place. There’s something more monster about him than puppet, not like the bumbling purple guy on television. He’s not even purple, and maybe it’s because he’s lit by streetlights, but this Grimace is black. His fiberglass arms hug his body, which is a cage, which has a child-sized space for climbing in and out.
Hill knows that ten years ago, he watched Dakota in this thing, and even then it made a rusty creak. It didn’t really bounce. It barely bent. A thing has to bend not to break, and he doesn’t know why he wasn’t terrified back then that the giant metal coil would snap and send the cage tumbling, daughter and all. It’s good — today — that his son is afraid of everything, including Grimace.
But no kids are playing on the playground, except for Daniel. At this point, most kids are fed and have their teeth brushed. At this point, they’re protesting bedtime. They’re yawning.
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