April A-Z
blog
ging challenge 2012
Q brings the next of 26 short stories - 250 words or fewer - about
the life and times of a fictional character called Alice
.
All children are unique. So Alice reminded herself daily as Rebecca
raced round the garden in her fairy costume. Was it normal for her to insist on
wearing the same clothes every day when she came home from school? She was six
years old and the fairy dress had been a present for her third birthday. She could
hardly squeeze into it now. The zip was broken, the sequins were hanging off
the ragged net skirt and the original pretty pink was now faded and greyish.
Rebecca insisted on wearing it to parties. She was a strapping
child, not a dainty waif, and the addition of bilious green frog-faced wellington
boots did nothing to improve her image. While other little girls sat prettily
and played nicely with each other Rebecca was playing football with the boys or
trying to climb trees. She was two years younger than Edward John and copied everything
he did. When she wasn’t following him she was a dog, answering only to the name
Rover, speaking in woofs and growls and eating her meals under the table.
Ivy told Alice it was just a phase that Rebecca would grow out
of.
‘Was I like that?’ Alice asked.
‘No, you were such a good little girl,’ said Ivy, ‘Not that
Rebecca isn’t a lovely little girl, too,’ she added hastily. ‘She’s just
imaginative.’
Alice sighed and wished her daughter would imagine herself
into a quiet, presentable young lady. However would she cope when the baby was
born?