Bernadine fills her time vomiting up the words onto her recently-purchased laptop. Sometimes, she eats. Sometimes, she loves her fiancé. Sometimes, she races her car along the quiet Jo’burg suburban roads. All she ever wanted to be was a truck driver. But instead she has a muse that shits on her head at inconvenient times. And there is nothing she can do about it. Bernadine loves her family, and she loves her imaginary pets and friends, but there will always be a passion for dressing up and pretending to be something she isn’t.
This is Bernadine's first story for Something Wicked. Download the full colour version
extract from Justice
Justice was a pig. Shelly fed him well. He was big and strong and loved to pull the washing off the line. Shelly’s mother hated Justice. She only allowed the little girl to keep him because she would scream if Justice wasn’t around. Shelly loved Justice. Justice ate everything she gave him. She would drag him into the garden and hold out handfuls of daffodils. And he would eat. She would stuff the heather into his jaws. And he would eat. She would drag him back into the house and feed him the things under the sink. And he would open his mouth and chomp up the dishcloths and the washing powder. Justice ate everything. Shelly loved taking Justice into the woods surrounding her house. Shelly liked playing with the little mice and squirrels. Shelly had found the key in her father’s desk drawer. She had slipped it into her little pocket and used it when Justice became insatiable. Her father never used the door under the stairs any more. Not after The Accident. He couldn’t get down the stairs. Now Mama went down for him, when the supplies ran low. Justice was getting bigger. His hide was becoming thicker and softer. Shelly loved to put her head to the hair, and bury her face in the thick pelt. It smelled of roses, she would tell her mother as she did the washing up. Shelly’s mother was unimpressed, and this saddened the little girl. All she wanted was for her mother to love Justice like she did. She wanted her to pat the pig and take him on walks. But her mother was a little frightened by the pig’s beady eyes staring at her. They had a hunger in them.
