“Papa” cried Little Elise, her slight fingers reaching desperately for the juicy chunk of goose on the end of her father’s fork, “I’m hungry.”

The grating sound of teeth on silver echoed through the dining room. The building tears spilled over Little Elise’s eyes as she looked between her father’s greasy mouth and the bones left on his plate.

Dr. Sterling frowned at his daughter. “If you’re hungry Elise, why don’t you eat?”

“But I don’t have any food, Papa!”

“What have I told you about yelling? Anyway, if you didn’t spend so much time daydreaming, maybe you wouldn’t have forgotten to buy your groceries.”

“I didn’t forget.” Insisted Little Elise, in the least shrill tone her six-year-old lungs could muster. “I’m all out of money for the month.”

“Well, there you have it, Elise. You shouldn’t have wasted your money.”

Little Elise’s tear-stained face turned even redder. “It wasn’t a waste; it was Mama wanting more for my spot.”

“Oh, don’t blame me, little one. You know I’ve had to raise everyone’s rent this month. There were two exquisite pieces at the show last week; how could I be expected choose between them?” Mrs. Fairfax explained, sipping her third glass of a Bordeaux old enough to be her great-grandfather.

Dr. Sterling nodded in understanding. “See Elise? No one to blame but yourself. Your mother and I have our own expenses. So does Jasper. You’re lucky your mother lets you live here.”

“If she keeps up all this fuss about not having enough money, I might not. How can I trust her to pay if she can’t even keep herself fed?”

Little Elise’s lips trembled. “Where else could I go?”

Her mother shrugged. Her father picked a small shred of meat, one Elise had been eyeing hopefully, off one of the goose bones.

“You could always live with Baby Felix.” murmured Jasper, the other living child in the family.

Sobs racked Little Elise’s body against her will. She didn’t want to live with Baby Felix. Thoughts of him haunted her, unwelcome and constant.

After eight months of excited anticipation, at least on Little Elise’s part, Mrs. Fairfax had given birth to a very small baby boy. According to Elise’s parents, there had been “complications.” Baby Felix had needed medical intervention. Dr. Sterling, renowned neonatologist, hadn’t been able to intervene.

Baby Felix had the misfortune of being born ugly, and there were very few lucrative positions available to ugly babies. Little Elise’s baby brother wouldn’t have been able to afford his rent, let alone the medical expenses he’d have accumulated after hours of care from such an elite doctor. No, saving baby Felix would have put him in inescapable debt. He would have been a burden to the family. When Mrs. Fairfax finally woke up, mostly recovered from the traumatic birth, and discovered her newborn son was buried in an unmarked grave in the backyard, she agreed with the sensibility of her husband’s decision. She was charged twenty-five thousand dollars in medical bills, which she balanced by raising everyone’s rent as often as possible.

Little Elise cried over her brother publicly, until she was scolded for disturbing the household, after which she only cried privately, burying her face in the sofa cushions every night once her family went to their respective rooms. Baby Felix was only ever talked about as a warning.

“You better work hard, Jasper, or you’ll end up like Felix.”

“If you talk back to me one more time, Elise, I’ll put you with Felix.”

Little Elise glared at Jasper through her tears. There had to be options besides living with Baby Felix. Her stomach growled, earning her a sharp look from her father.

“Isn’t your job paying you, Elise?” he asked.

“Yes, but it’s less than a dollar for each hour.”

“That seems fair; you’re very young. You can’t possibly be working as hard as some of those bigger kids.”

“But Mama wants three hundred a month for my spot now!”

“Well then you’ll just have to work more hours.”

Little Elise blew her nose on her see-through t-shirt. “I can’t” she cried. Her body would give out; she knew it would. Wishing she were stronger didn’t make her grow any faster.

“You could hunt.” Jasper suggested, his mouth full of the last bite of his hamburger. Last month, he’d eaten three a night.

It was no secret that Jasper longed to be a hunter. He had the skill for it, a fact which made Little Elise seethe with envy, but he didn’t even have time to hunt for himself with how many hours he had to work at his job. He’d been born unusually pretty, and his babyhood modeling career had never ended. With all the luck in the world, even he hadn’t been lucky enough to live in a world where hunting paid more than modeling, or where he could afford not to care. His rent, which got him his own room and a small bed, was six hundred a month.

“I can’t see well enough to hunt.” Little Elise reminded him mournfully.

Dr. Sterling slammed the table with his fist. “Enough, Elise! Your rent is cheaper than any of ours. I won’t put up with all this whining, all these excuses.”

Little Elise stayed silent as her family cleared their plates. She’d waited days to complain, knowing the reaction she’d get. Jasper washed his plate after giving it a thorough licking. Her parents left theirs in the sink for the maid, though her father scraped the goose bones into the trash first, sneering at Little Elise as he did so.

With her family all gone off to their beds, Little Elise lay awake on the sofa, all her three hundred a month got her besides the right to be inside and limited water usage. It had been five days since she finished her last piece of bread, and her stomach was aching. She licked her salty cheeks, but the taste only made her hungrier.

Once she was certain there were no more noises coming through the ceiling, Little Elise rolled silently off her sofa, refusing to sneeze even though the dust made her nose itch. She crept towards the kitchen in the dark, holding onto the walls to know where she was and to keep her trembling little body upright. She wasn’t heavy enough for her steps to make any noise on the polished floor. The trash can creaked as she opened it, and she ducked down for several moments, heart beating wildly against her ribs. Convinced she was still alone, Little Elise shoved her head into the trash can to pull out the goose bones. She didn’t check what had been under them, but it felt disturbingly squishy.

Huddled over the bin, Little Elise sucked the marrow out of the cracked bones after desperately licking them clean. She tried to eat the whole bone, but her baby teeth weren’t nearly strong enough, and she ended up with splinters in her tongue. Little Elise went to sleep lightheaded and with an aching mouth, stomach still rumbling like thunder.

“Elise!”

Little Elise woke with a start, panicked that she was late for work. She normally woke hours before her family, who worked so hard that they earned the privilege to start their jobs after the sun did, and sometimes not at all. Jumping out of bed, she looked to the window across the room, but the world outside was still dark. She listened; the birds weren’t singing yet.

“Elise, get in here!” Her father shouted from the kitchen.

Elise scrambled off her couch, taking a few moments to let her head stop swimming before she made her way to him. “What’s going on, Papa?”

Her family was gathered around the table, all with bags under their eyes. Jasper was in a thin blanket, resting his head on the table, his usually perfect curls standing up in all directions. Little Elise’s mother was drinking coffee and reading, entirely uninterested in her husband’s shouting. Dr. Sterling towered over the table, gripping a little bundle of greasy rags with white knuckles.

“Elise,” he said, “you stole from me.” He unclenched his fist, revealing the cracked goose bones.

“I didn’t.” Little Elise’s voice quavered, “They were in the trash. You didn’t want them.”

“And you think that gave you the right to take them?” He threw the bones back into the trash.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was so hungry…”

“Is that my fault?”

Little Elise shook her head, taking a few small steps back out of the kitchen.

“You’ve committed a crime, Elise. You remember what that means?”

Jasper raised his head off the table, bleary eyed and frowning. “She has to be punished.”

“That’s right, now get me my hammer from the toolbox.”

Jasper returned within minutes, carrying the hammer Dr. Sterling had never used. “What are you going to do to her?” He asked.

“I am going to punish her fairly for what she’s done. Hand it over, Jasper.”

Jasper didn’t let go.

Mrs. Fairfax sighed between sips of coffee. “Give your father the hammer, or you’ll have to live outside.”

“That’s not-” Jasper started quietly.

“I don’t make the rules.” His mother interrupted.

Jasper let his father take the hammer and scampered out of the kitchen. Little Elise watched him, eyes watering, until she was dragged forward, too weak to offer any sort of resistance.

“Bones for bones seems right, doesn’t it Elise? Put your hand on the table.”

Little Elise’s hand shook as she set it on the table. “I’m sorry!” she cried.

Crunch.

Little Elise woke on the floor of the empty kitchen to sunlight streaming through every window. She tried to sit up, pushing herself off the floor, but gave up when pain shot through one of her hands, all the way up her arm. Only then did she realize how much it ached. All it took was one look at her mangled hand for Little Elise to spend the next few minutes still on the floor, dry heaving again and again. Nothing came up. Tucking the injured appendage against her chest, Little Elise pulled herself up with her good hand and stumbled to the sofa.

Cuddled into the ancient cushions, Little Elise drifted in and out of consciousness. Sometimes the room was dark, other times it was bright, but it made little difference. The cozy, sleepy feeling that had come over her was too pleasant to stay awake for long anyway. As if by magic, a glass of water sometimes appeared at her lips when she was half-asleep. Too tired to open her eyes, she gulped it down to ease her parched throat. It burned on the way back up.

In one of her few conscious moments, Little Elise noticed that her doll had come to snuggle with her. It was just an old, half-shredded shirt with a rubber band forming the bundle of its head. Jasper had always taunted her about it, but clearly it was just as alive as Little Elise had always known it to be. It was more alive than Little Elise, if it had made the climb all the way from under the sofa. She’d been neglecting it all year, her greatest guilt in all the world. Being ill really wasn’t so bad, Little Elise realized. She had endless time, the rest of her life really, to sleep and give her doll the attention it deserved. After that, both of them spent a very long time asleep, long enough for the little doll to get soaked through with sweat and unconscious tears.

“Why aren’t you waking up? It’s rent day. Get up, get up.”

The voice came to Little Elise through a very deep void of darkness and comforting
silence.

“Shhh, we’re sleeping.” She grumbled, unsure if she’d really moved her mouth or not.

“I don’t have time for this, Elise. Open your eyes. Do you have the money for me or not?”

Little Elise tried to blink, but her eyelids felt horribly heavy. She’d never grown enough to be very strong; how could they expect her to lift heavy things? “No, Mama. No money.”

Both of her hands were grabbed, and she gasped in pain, her eyes finally opening with their own volition. She managed to bite her doll to keep from leaving it behind as she was yanked off the couch. Though she didn’t weigh any more than a large cat, Little Elise was not carried. She would have liked the comfort, but instead her mother dragged all the way to the back door before dumping her down the steps.

“This is just the way it has to be.” Mrs. Fairfax explained.

“Bye, Mama.”

The door slammed.

With the fresh air clearing a few of the cobwebs from her head and the breeze cooling her fevered skin, Little Elise used the last of her strength to crawl to the familiar little mound at the edge of the yard, doll still clenched in her teeth. She flopped on top of the soft ground, letting her face rest in the dirt and closing her eyes.

She was too tired to talk, but she didn’t think it would make much difference to Baby Felix.

Hi, Baby Felix, she thought. You don’t mind if we live with you, do you? So we won’t be too lonely.

Little Elise took the welcoming moisture of the soil, the way it allowed her to sink into it, as a yes.

I don’t know why I was so scared to live here. It’ll be nice; won’t it, Baby Felix?

She felt a worm wriggling under one of her toes. If she’d been more awake, she would have laughed.

I think the worms are waiting for me to fall asleep. I hope I’m filling enough for them; I’m not very big, and I’d hate for them to be hungry.

Little Elise fell asleep with her doll held tightly against her chest, mind full of flourishing, verdant grass and plump little worms.

When Jasper got home from work that evening, it was to his mother shaking a collection envelope at him and a vacant sofa. In his panic, he checked every room in the house that children had ever been allowed in before remembering the yard. He found his little sister, his only sister, cold and dead, lying on the same grave that he’d refused to watch his baby brother be buried in. With skeletal, blue fingers, she still clutched the ridiculous old doll he’d dug out from under the sofa for her.

Back inside the house, Jasper stole his mother’s lighter to set his rent money ablaze, rejoicing in the way it blistered his slender fingers. He ransacked every kitchen cabinet, every pantry, every section of the refrigerator, grabbing whatever he saw first, whatever looked expensive, whatever he’d always wanted to eat. With grocery bags stuffed to the brim, Jasper made only a short stop in his room before marching outside to where his siblings both slept.

“We’re going to have a picnic.” he croaked, laying the food out around Little Elise’s body. He threw a bottle of wine into the forest; it smelled too much like his mother.

Satisfied with the spread, Jasper knelt beside his sister, careful to position himself in a way that wouldn’t disrupt her. He picked his rifle up from the ground, brushing off the dirt, and pressed the muzzle into his own chest. He missed hunting.

Bang. The worms were the ones who really had a picnic.

For the first time in his life, Jasper didn’t feel guilty.

For the first time in her life, Little Elise didn’t feel hungry.

For the first time in his life, Baby Felix didn’t feel alone.

The next morning, Mrs. Fairfax called the cheapest grave digging company she could find. She and Dr. Sterling both left grocery lists for the maid, along with a note telling her that her paycheck would be reduced $50 that month, since her last grocery run hadn’t lasted the week like she’d promised it would. On her way home from work, Mrs. Fairfax stopped by the local newspaper’s headquarters, telling them to put the following advertisement in the next morning’s paper:

Rooms for rent. Options ranging from $400 to $700 a month, non-negotiable. Children need not apply.