Crying fiasco.

The silent queue heard the girl passionately crying. She was around five years old and was making the other shoppers feel uncomfortable. Most were faded control freaks, quietly having to ham up their emotionless appearances. The sound of blunt passion put their nerves on edge. Was the girl crying about something serious? Violet cried as if she had shrapnel wounds. Her mother asked her what was wrong and Violet attempted to speak.

Her words were an incomprehensible wail, as they were mixed with her crying. She repeated them a dozen times before something decipherable emerged. “I wanted some crayons.” Violet blubbed. Other people in the queue smiled – this wasnt a case of child abuse. How could the person who seemed the most passionate in the room be so insincere? Her face was red and tears dropped along it. It was a lot of effort for a packet of crayons.

Her mother ignored her. The failure of her venture left Violet looking both a gooseberry and a ham. She leant against a post and stared wistfully into the distance as if dreaming of golden days with crayons that alas, were never to be. She felt silly and quietly tried to row back from her act without admitting her deviousness.

Her baby brother Ben heard sounds of distress, assumed that it was his own and began to join in, giving him a nightmare. He used the full force of his voice and body to fight against the demons in his mind and his limbs flailed around his buggy. ‘Aawwww – the cute baby is wriggling his cute boots’ thought some in the queue. ‘You made Ben cry.’ said his mother to Violet, accusingly.

Violet had spent the preceding week with two of her many grandparents, who all wanted to be entertained by Violet. They would reward her scenes. Violet had forgotten that she had to appear a good little girl for her Mum, who didnt reward her scenes. Violets Mum decided that she would ring these particular grandparents up later for her monthly complaint about how hyper Violet was after being spoilt by them.

They reached the counter. As her Mum was busy being served, Violet stared poison darts at Ben.

After shopping, they picked up Violets younger sister, Connie, from another couple of grandparents. During the car journey home, Violets mother laughed on the mobile phone about Violets acting. When they got home, Violets mother used the landline phone to laugh about Violets acting. Violet wasnt happy about this and grew a scowl through the evening. Today was a rare failure for her. She had been caught acting and for no reward. “Shes as good as gold usually.” her largely absent mother erroneously claimed.

Violet began thinking of a subtle ’fuck you’ to her mother for not giving in to Violets demand for crayons. Her mind was full of sneaky options used for outwitting physically stronger kids in a mean SureStart nursery to become the sociopathic bitch that she now was.

Violet went in to Bens room, stood above him and shook him. When Ben awoke, she pulled evil faces. He became terrified and started screaming. Violet picked up her sister Connie and plonked her in Bens room then hid. Their mother came up the stairs. “Connie pulled faces and frightened the baby.” said Violet innocently. Violets mum scolded Connie for being bad and praised Violet for being good. Connie frowned in confusion and sucked her thumb. She would grow up with a strange feeling of being conned without working out its cause.

With her siblings in real distress and her mother contemptuously conned, Violet felt back in control of everyone again and slept easy, knowing that her crayon humiliation had been avenged.