with a fork. She did this

because her mother said 

that she could only get

another pet after 

this one died. The small girl

had once heard her father 

say lobsters can’t feel pain.

She thought her hermit crab

looked just like a lobster.

Elmer took a whole week

to die. She only stabbed 

him once. He cringed himself 

into his painted shell

and weeped something almost 

blue, like the liquid that

oozes from a blister.

When her parents found him

they had nothing to say.