It felt like an eternity before Janine hit the ground; in mid-air the world twisted and turned like elephant trunk muscles, and there was an angry silence ringing in her ears. The world flashed white when her left hip (and arm, bent awkwardly behind her back), made contact with the shoulder of the dirt road.
A fuzzy sensation crawled over her feet when the white light disappeared like a swarm of fireflies on the horizon; Janine imagined herself not being there when realizing she was standing on her feet. She looked down and saw that she was still clutching Amy under her arm like an unwanted birthday gift. There was a throbbing sensation where the stitches in her chin had come loose, and the cut, caked with dust, stood out like a parasitic caterpillar.

Janine spat a mixture of earth and blood that clapped like bullets on the side of the road, and noticed that she had lost a shoe. She looked around, and through a haze that waltzed through her mind like guests at a confusion-masquerade, saw the red eyes of the jeep’s brake lights go on in a puff of dust. The jeep skid-bounced over the side of the road, flipped over, and struck the only acacia in—what Janine estimated to be—approximately four kilometers. The sound of the crash was sickening, and Janine stood for a moment, hand over mouth, watching Mark’s limp body being flung trough a clear afternoon sky.

There was a part of Janine that wanted to stay, to walk over and see if she could be of any assistance to the injured, but, as if the doll had been tugging at her mother’s ripped tee shirt, Janine looked down and stared into Amy’s beady eyes; for the first time since starting therapy with Doctor Black, her other part opened up. Janine lowered her head and closed her eyes; the muscles in her neck tensed and the balls of her feet felt warm. She dropped the doll and stomped on its neck.

‘This is not Amy, Janine. You’re pathetic, you know that? You should’ve let me out a little earlier, you stupid bitch! Just look what a mess you’ve made. Not to worry, though; you can always depend on old Tommy to sort tings out.’