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unaffected and unconcerned. They exclaim silently over them, showing
them off as the music teacher’s slender dark back bends over his work.
A knob of fresh cheese Sophia made herself, a squirming mass of tiny
pink bloodworm larvae, and a sopping wet red lump of fresh, glistening
meat: a heart, still bright with oxygenation, just this side of beating.
Mrs. Fische plucks up a helping of larvae and drops it into her mouth,
sucking her fingers with relish. Mrs. Minke sinks her sharp teeth into the
cheese. Mrs. Lyon licks greedily at the severed aorta of the heart.
Sophia smiles at them. Seeing their pleasure pushes the music and the
strange man and the scream far down into the root system of her mind. The
tension pops like a moonflower opening. Ease slides down her limbs.
She is happy, after all.
Sophia’s smile unfurls as pure and perfect as the first smile ever
managed. They like her gifts. They like her. She is appreciated. She is
loved. It is such a wonderful thing in this world, to have friends.