Twisted Women (gxg)

3 Who are Max and Sonya?

Listen to Pretty Girl by Clairo

Meera

After a huge breakfast, Talia climbed up on my lap and picked a pencil. Her spelling homework lay before her, untouched. She looked up at me with drooping eyes. "I don't like doing this."

I shot her an encouraging smile and ruffled her hair. "Five more words and we can open the new crayon box for your coloring book. Okay?"

Her back stiffened at the mention. "Crayons?"

"Yes."

With her nose scrunched up in concentration, she quickly got to work. "C for Cat. C. A. T," she mumbled, scribbling on her notebook in a shaky handwriting. "Ma?"

"Mm?"

"Why is it always 'C for Cat'? Can't I say another word instead?"

I furrowed my brows. "What else word do you have in mind?"

She sucked the end of her pencil in deep thought. "Calorie." In an afterthought, she added, "The nurse that takes care of me in the a-dog-tion center was always sad because her boyfriend calls the fat, so she eats less and says she's counting 'calories'."

I smiled involuntarily. "Okay, then. Write Calorie."

"Look!" she said, flipping to a page with red ink marks all over it. 

With a little gasp, I read the contents of the page.

The title read 'Classwork' with two underlines.

A for Attagirl

B for Bubles

C for Calorie

D for Dream

E for Ellow  

Every answer was struck out with thick red ink and replaced with Apple, Boy, Cat, Dog and Elephant by the teacher. I felt my stomach fall into a pit. 

Pressing a kiss on her hair, I tried to smile. "People always try to put you in a box, Talia. It's all about how you break out of it."

"Huh?" she asked, unable to understand. 

"Just strike out Cat and write Calorie again."

_

I opened Talia's closet to pick the twelve-in-one crayon set I brought her earlier. She had finished her homework and wouldn't stop whining till I agreed to get her the crayons. A flash of pink and blue and orange and green blinded me. 

"What is this?" I breathed, astounded. Crowding the closet in front of me was a heap of stationeries: pencils, glitter pens, crayons, post-its of every imaginable colour, highlighters, shimmering washi tapes, paper pins, a dozen staplers, packets of board pins and pencil holders. "Oh my god. Where did all this come from?"

Her excited smile dulled when she saw my face. "Mommy got these yesterday." 

"Stella? Did you ask her to buy all these?"

She vigorously shook her head no. "No!" 

I clapped a hand to my head and collapsed on my daughter's tiny bed.

"What is wrong with her? What are you going to do with all those staplers?" This was just crazy. In the name of being happy and feeling like a 'jar full of stars' as she kept repeating, Stella's been doing some crazy shit. She has ordered a mahogany table that will take up half of my living room when it arrives. And last night, she didn't fall asleep at all. I had to stay up all night listening to her speak and on and on about her work.