A Malicious Girl (Jehanne Jean-Charles)

This afternoon, I pushed Arthur into the pond. He fell and his mouth started going gurgle-gurgle,
but he also screamed and was heard. Papa and mama arrived in a hurry. Mama was crying
because she thought Arthur had drowned. He had not. The doctor came over. Arthur is well now.
He asked for cake with jam and mama gave it to him. However, it was seven, almost time to go to
sleep, when he asked for it, and mama gave it to him anyway. Arthur was very happy and proud.
Everyone asked him questions. Mama asked him how he had fallen, whether he had slipped, and
he said that yes, he had stumbled. Its nice of him to say that, but I still hate him and I will try again
at the first chance I get.

Besides, if he didnt say I had pushed him, it might be simply because he knows very well that
mama hates tattle. The other day, when I gripped his neck with the jumping rope, he went to
mama and complained saying: Hlne was the one who squeezed it, mama gave him a terrible
spanking and told him: Never say such a thing again! And when papa came back, she told him
and papa also got very angry. Arthur did not get dessert. That made him understand and, this
time, since he said nothing, he got cake with jam: I also asked mama for some, I asked three times,
but she pretended not to hear me. Does she suspect I pushed Arthur?

I used to be nice to Arthur, because mama and papa gave me as much things as him. When he got
a new toy car, I would get a doll and they would not have given him cake without giving me too.
But, since a month ago, papa and mama changed completely toward me. There is no one but
Arthur. He gets gifts all the time. His character is not improving like this. He has always been a bit
whimsical, but now he is just detestable. He keeps on asking for this and that. And mama complies
every time. In fact, he has only been scolded once in a month, which is funny, because for once, it
was not his fault!

I wonder why papa and mama, who used to love me so much, have stopped caring about me. It
would seem I am no longer their little girl. When I kiss mama, she doesnt even smile. Neither
does papa. When they go for a walk, I go with them, but they keep on ignoring me. I can play near
the pond as much as I want, they do not care. Arthur is nice to me sometimes, but he refuses to
play with me. The other day I asked him why mama had become this way with me. I did not want
to talk to him, but I could not resist. He looked at me from below, with a sly expression he uses to
annoy me, and said it was because mama did not want to hear from me anymore. I told him it was
not true. He told me it was, that he had heard mama and papa and that she had even said: Never
again, I dont want to hear of her ever again!

That was the day when I squeezed his neck with the rope. Afterwards, I was so furious, that
despite the spanking he got, I went into his room and told him I would kill him.

This afternoon, he told me that mama, papa, and him would go to the sea and that they would not
take me. He laughed and made faces at me. So I pushed him to the pond.

Right now he is asleep, and so are papa and mama. In a moment, I will go to his room and this
time, he will not have time to scream, Ive got the jumping rope. He forgot it in the garden, and I
took it. This way, they will be forced to go without him. And then, I will go to bed all alone, at the
back of this ugly garden, in this horrible white box in which they have made me sleep for a month.