Scarred for life

"You let her wear those?"
"That's what she wanted," he said.
"To school? You let her wear those to school? No wonder she's crying."
"It's what she wanted. I thought that was the plan. Give her a bit more autonomy, let her make some of her own decisions."
"It never occurred to you that the other girls would tease her?"
"Well, no. They're just kids. It's not as if...."
"Six year old girls aren't kids; they're feral cubs. They hunt in packs. They seek out the the innocent, cut them out of the herd, slowly rip them limb from limb, then devour them whole."
"I didn't know. I figured she knew what she was doing."
"She's six. Really, all you had to do was get her dressed, give her breakfast, and take her to school. Twice a week, that's all you have to do."
"I thought that's what I did."
"What you did is allow the poor child to get emotionally scarred for life."
"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. So she got teased a bit. It'll toughen her...."
"For life. She'll still remember this when she's our age. She'll remember it when we're old and she has us in a nursing home. It'll be your fault if we find ourselves being wheeled around the home wearing nothing but adult diapers and Dorothy's ruby fucking slippers."
"Don't you think you might be exaggerating just a bit?"
"Tomorrow, I want...promise me this...tomorrow, I want you to make sure she's wearing the plainest, blackest, most dull and boring shoes she's got in her closet."
"Okay."
"I want shoes so dull they'll be like an anasthetic."
"Okay."
"Shoes that will actually put other kids to sleep. I want them keeling over in the hallways."
"Dull shoes tomorrow, got it."
"I hope you at least gave her a decent breakfast."
"All she wanted was a.... Why are you looking at me like that?"

posted by greg @ 11:27 AM