TheBanyanTree: The Zombie Catherine

[Jim Miller]

Monique,

Love it. Thanks.

JR


On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Monique Colver
<monique.colver at gmail.com>wrote:

> (The occasional piece about the ZC)
>
> The Zombie Catherine wiped what could have been oozing brain matter off her
> chin and (but was really oatmeal) and prepared to go shopping, first by
> putting on clean tattered clothes and then by mussing her hair, just a bit.
> She didn't want to give the appearance she was fully alive, after all,
> since it confused people. So many whispers, and stares, and floating
> remarks, "Look, is that a zombie, or what?" Best to not leave any doubt.
> Still, even zombies have some self respect. Not much, but some.
>
> The Zombie Catherine (which she used as her name so as not to confuse
> herself with Catherine, the non-zombie) wasn't particularly fond of
> Christmas. It brought up memories of her parents, non-zombies who had
> raised their children with all the traditional trappings of Christmas,
> including tinsel and a deluge of cookies and sweets, which the Zombie
> Catherine blamed for her previously chubby appearance. That had changed, of
> course, since zombies rarely get enough to eat, and the weight loss is
> substantial once the change starts.
>
> But the children, they loved Christmas. She'd tried to explain that zombies
> don't celebrate Christmas, but the Zombie Stephanie and the Zombie Louis
> had just looked at her as if she weren't quite human. Which she wasn't, but
> that was beside the point.
>
> "But we still get toys, right?" Stephanie had asked, while her head lolled
> to the side, ready to fall off should someone shake her vigorously.
>
> "I want more video games," Louis intoned, his expression never changing. It
> never did, of course, but the Zombie Catherine knew he really wanted
> presents anyway. The lack of visible emotion didn't mean there wasn't any
> emotion, it only meant he was a zombie.
>
> And so she had given in, as she always did when it came to the children.
> Her well-meant effort to reduce the harm she'd done to her children had
> gone awry, and instead she had two spoiled brat zombies. And they were
> still zombies, no matter how much she spoiled them or let them play Grand
> Theft Auto.
>
>
> M
>