Work to Scale : 3

But she saw too that that meant that I could do more stuff for her. Miss Rebecca trained me and so in a while she made me do most of the work around her room, cleaning up at night, helping to make her bed in the morning and combing her hair at night. Mrs. Thomas said it was okay as long as Miss Rebecca watched and did the heavy stuff. But I got scared of Miss Rebecca in a whole other way because if she wanted me to I would have to just be her baby again but like this I could sometimes even wear clothes all day and sit up and walk and all this stuff that babies weren’t supposed to do. So I worked really hard to be good and do what I was told and even sometimes figure out good stuff I could do that I thought of by myself. I tried really hard to be quiet and learn stuff as fast as I could and do it like Miss Rebecca wanted me to.

But I got punished a lot anyway because sometimes Miss Rebecca told me to do homework or tell her stuff and I couldn’t because then Mrs. Thomas would find out and I’d get in really big trouble. So I got spanked a lot and she did a lot of other stuff that hurt. She used the batteries and a couple of times she held me over scary stuff like ants and said that she was going to drop me. If I could just be good for Miss Rebecca and good for Mrs. Thomas at the same time I wouldn’t need to be punished but I didn’t know how. They were both right, but different. Why couldn’t I make them want the same thing?

One day Miss Rebecca went out to play with her friends and I was all by myself. I had some things to play with in my crib ‘cause I wasn’t allowed out unless somebody was there but I still got bored a lot and sat there and wished all sorts of things like that I could be big again or could go out when I wanted or that Miss Rebecca would let me use the paints or crayons and do stuff by myself. Mrs. Thomas had taken away the old stuff that used to be mine that used to hang down over me and I tried to see it in my head, all sorts of cards and stuff and things she said I couldn’t ever use again, but I knew I couldn’t remember all of it.

And as I was lying there just gave up. I couldn’t. Not ever and I wasn’t allowed anymore and never would be. And I lied there and waited for my Miss Rebecca ‘cause she’s the whole entire world.

This work is copyright R.H.W., writing as Gulliver, 2006, and is copyleft by him. All electronic reproduction is allowed unless expressly prohibited by the author. So go ahead and post it wherever you want but no printing on actual paper for resale without my saying it’s cool. Cool? Cool.