text: I think Grandma Mabel is the nicest person in the whole world. Mama used to say that everyone says mean things sometimes, even when they’re a good person, but I’ve never heard Grandma Mabel say a bad thing not once. She makes the best cakes and pies and tarts but the best by far is her honey. She has a big hive full of bees and they’re so friendly! Sometimes I’m allowed to put my hand inside and get some honey on my finger. The bees come and sit on my hand but I’m not afraid of getting stung because they’re Grandma Mabel’s bees, and everything about Grandma Mabel is nice. After school, my little brother Roger and I go to Grandma Mabel’s house for tea and cake. She has the biggest garden I’ve ever seen and she says we’re allowed to go anywhere we like in it, so long as we don’t upset the flowers. Flowers have feelings, Grandma Mabel says. We have to be very careful to not make them sad by doing things like not giving them enough water, or by stepping on them. Roger doesn’t care about the flowers as much as I do, but I think it’s fun to look after them. Grandma Mabel showed me how to fill up her watering can and how to get out all the nasty weeds from the flowerbed. She said I could be a gardener or a florist when I grow up! Roger prefers helping Grandma Mabel with her baking. I like the cakes and pies, but I like flowers more so I let him do the baking instead of me. She makes all these amazing cakes with the flowers from the garden, so they look all colourful and taste delicious! I would never think of doing something like that. It’s so clever. She makes sure to only take a little bit of the flowers so they won’t be upset and will grow back. We even made lavender cookies last week. I grew the lavender, which is a sort of purple-y plant with a nice smell, and Roger made them into biscuits. Grandma Mabel was so proud of us. I said to Roger that we should have a bakery when we’re older with a big garden behind it. I tried to bring back some of the biscuits to give to Papa, but he was in one of his bad moods. He hit me on my face, which really hurt, but I didn’t cry because Roger was there and I knew he would get scared. Papa said he talked to the priest and the priest said that we were children of Lucifer and that we were sinful. He called us a word beginning with b. I can’t remember what the word was but he sounded angry when he said it, so I don’t think it was a nice word. Roger asked me when I put him to bed if we were really children of sin, but I don’t think we are. I read my Bible at school and I say my prayers too, so I told him that as long as we follow God’s word we will be alright. My cheek got all hot and sore the next day, and it was hard to eat because it was bigger than usual. Then the mom of one of the girls in my class came up to me in the playground and said she hoped I was happy spreading my Devil’s filth. She said she wasn’t going to keep her daughter at a school that allowed me to stay in it. I felt secretly happy, because her daughter is Moira, and Moira liked to pull my hair and steal my food at lunchtime just because she’s bigger. Then I felt a bit bad because I saw Moira crying when she left school. I told Grandma Mabel about what happened. She got all sad when I asked her if the priest was right and said that he was wrong and that I shouldn’t worry. I trust her more than that creepy old guy anyways. On our way home Grandma Mabel’s neighbour called us the b-word that Papa said and tried to throw a dog turd at us. It didn’t hit me, but it went on one of Grandma Mabel’s flowers and she made the face that Papa makes when he’s real angry. I don’t think she was angry at me though, cause she just told us to be careful going home and that she’d deal with it. I asked her what she was going to do, and she said she was just going to bring the neighbour some honey. Honey makes everyone a bit kinder, she said, it’s so sweet that they would feel happier after eating it. That makes sense because I always feel better when I have some of Grandma Mabel’s honey. I went to school the next day, but then Miss Philips told me to go home because there had been an ‘incident’. I didn’t know what that was, so I asked her and she got this funny face. Miss Philips said that Moira’s mom had died yesterday, and Moira said that she didn’t want me here for the funeral so I had to go home. I felt a bit sad because it wasn’t like I did anything wrong, but then Moira came to school and started crying and screaming at me saying it was my fault, so I left. I promise I didn’t do anything though. God says that killing is bad, and we should always follow God’s rules. I went to Grandma Mabel’s instead. She looked a bit confused to see me because it was a school day, and Roger wasn’t there, but I couldn’t go home because Papa would get mad. I got to help her plant lots of new flowers! It was really exciting. She got a big order of some new ones just today and we planted them all nicely in the corner of the garden next to the beehive. Grandma Mabel said that she bought them because the types of flowers that bees use for their honey makes it taste different. They collect this thing called nectar, which is when you see them going around and wiggling into the flowers. Every type of nectar is different and they use it to make honey! I didn’t know it was so complicated! There were lots of different plants. Grandma Mabel said I mustn’t eat any of them, which I wouldn’t do with any of the plants anyway, but these plants aren’t good for humans. Only bees like them. There were some bright pink ones, some long skinny ones with little white flowers, some purple ones that grew upwards in straight lines, and ones with little purple berries. As well as some droopy purple ones that looked like little hats and white ones that looked like little bells. She told me all the names, but I can’t really remember them. My favourites were the pink ones though. They were so bright and cheerful! Luckily next week I was allowed to go back to school. The other kids in my class were being mean to me though. Moira had to move schools because of her mom, but I think she was already going to move because of what her mom said the other day. I don’t know why they’re all so unkind to me. One of the boys who sits next to me in English class said that because my hair is red, it means that I’m evil. I didn’t know that. I think there’s a lot that I don’t know. When Roger and I got to Grandma Mabel’s, she’d made a whole new batch of honey from the flowers I planted with her! I was excited to try some, but she said she had some special honey that was just for us and I felt really special. Because of my help, the bees really liked the flowers and had been making loads all weekend. She even got to give some out to people in the village already! Grandma Mabel’s special honey was the best I’ve ever tasted. I told her she needs to make enough for a lifetime supply, and she laughed. Then she looked a bit serious and said that the priest had died today. The sheriff said it was an accident, his heart had gone all funny and then stopped at dinnertime. “Is it my fault?” I asked. “Cause Moira’s mom died on Friday, and she said it was my fault.” Grandma Mabel looked at me and Roger with a calm look. Well, it wasn’t really calm, but I don’t know how to describe it. She hadn’t made that face before and it was a little scary. “Callie, Roger, listen to me. Whatever anyone says, you must know that they’re wrong. None of this is your fault at all, and you’re the best kids I’ve ever known. Don’t listen to anything anyone says about you.” She gave me a big hug afterwards, and she smelled nice. I think she was crying when we went home. Papa usually waited for us at home, but that day he didn’t come out. He doesn’t like us coming into his room when he doesn’t tell us to, and the last time I did he hit me so hard on the backside that it started bleeding. I called him from outside the room and said “Papa, we’re home,” but he didn’t say anything. It was a little weird. But he was probably just drinking again so I made Roger dinner and then went to bed. Everything got a little weird after that. The horrid neighbour who threw a dog turd into Grandma Mabel’s flowerbed died after Moira’s mom and the priest. The sheriff had to make a speech to the town because everyone was getting really scared, and the school sent everyone home. No one knew why people were dying. I called Grandma Mabel from the phone at home and asked her if she was scared because her neighbour had died, but she just said that she was okay. The neighbour was mean anyway. It was really boring at home. A couple more people died, like the old man down our road who’d hit me with a walking stick once. The sheriff said that everyone should stay in their houses as much as possible so that they could do an investigation, but I wanted to visit Grandma Mabel. She said on the phone that she’d been giving out honey to people to make them feel better because everyone was so anxious. I asked if it was okay for us to come and stay, and she said that would be lovely. When I went to ask Papa, he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t come out of his room for a few days now, so Roger and I were getting very hungry (I’m not a very good cook). There was a bad smell coming from his room, too. It was kind of gross so we just left and went to Grandma Mabel’s. When we got there, Grandma Mabel had run out of honey, because she’d been giving it out to people all week. But we still had the rest of the jar of special honey from last time, and she said she’d make some more for us. She had such a big house, and Roger and I got our own rooms! They were all clean and tidy and smelled so nice, and the beds were all made, like when Mama was still alive. A little part of me hopes that Papa doesn’t come out of his room for a while so that we can stay as long as we want. Grandma Mabel doesn’t hit us or drink until she yells and makes us scared. She makes us nice lunches and plays with us in the garden and gives us warm hugs. She’s the loveliest person ever. The next week, four more people died. ‘Under mysterious circumstances’, Grandma Mabel said. But none of us were sad, because they weren’t nice people just like before. One of them was Miss Philips from school. They had to keep the school closed for another week because of it. I asked Grandma Mabel what she thought was happening. She said that she thinks it’s all God’s plan and that he’s getting rid of all the nasty people so only the nice ones are left. “Are they going to Hell?” I questioned. “I think so. If you’re horrible to a child, then you should go to Hell. At least, that’s my opinion,” Grandma Mabel replied. “Well, then that’s my opinion too,” I said, and Grandma Mabel laughed. Yesterday, Grandma Mabel sat us down and asked us if we’d like to go and live with her somewhere else. Because of all the people dying, the village wasn’t very safe anymore. She said that she’d talked to Papa on the phone when we were asleep and that he was ok with it. I was a bit surprised because Papa doesn’t like us even leaving the house usually, but if he says it’s okay, then it must be! We’re going to go across the country tomorrow. I’m so excited! Grandma Mabel says we’re moving somewhere sunny and warm with an even bigger house. Her sister and her husband live there, and they have grandchildren that are the same age as me and Roger. We’re even going to take the bees too, so we can make more honey together! Grandma Mabel really must be the nicest person in the world.