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Only Monsters Tell Lies By Lynn Dacey
I’m still not allowed to go outside. Mommy and Daddy told me I couldn’t when I was little, but I’m big now. I just turned five, and I told them I wanted to go outside to see the pretty deer. That’s when they locked the doors and said it was too dangerous. Then they showed me movies that had big, scary monsters walking around in forests. At night, after Mommy and Daddy thought I was asleep, I would peek through the wooden boards in front of my window and try to see the horns on all the deer. I’m not allowed to go near any of the other windows, but it doesn’t really matter since mine is the only one that has boards I can see through. The rest of the windows have lots and lots of boards. After I saw those movies, though, I stopped looking outside. I live with just Mommy and Daddy and nobody else. I’ve never been outside because it’s too dangerous. Mommy and Daddy can go outside because they’re strong. Mommy usually stays home, but Daddy goes to work every morning. He doesn’t come back until
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late at night, when Mommy has dinner ready for us to eat. When Mommy goes out, I’m left all by myself. Whenever she comes home, she always has more food and a new toy for me, so I don’t mind when she goes away. I don’t get scared when I’m alone. I’m a big girl. One morning, after Daddy went to work, Mommy made me pancakes. She moved around the kitchen, but her big tummy kept bumping into stuff. Whenever I asked why it was getting so big, Daddy would poke it and tell me that mommy was eating too much. It always made me giggle, but Mommy would just say that he wasn’t funny and go back to eating her big meal. When I sat down, Mommy put a plate of pancakes down in front of me and sat next to me. As I dug in, she told me that she was going out today to get more groceries. She asked me what toy I wanted. I told her I wanted a baby doll. She promised to get me one, then I told her about the dreams I had while I was asleep. When she was finished eating, she kissed me on the head and left, locking the door behind
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