Matilda

A sweet little girl lived with her mom, dad, and brother in an all American house. She was observant, smart and shocked everyone with her hunger for knowledge. She satisfied her cravings when she discovered books at an age as early as three! She started with children’s books but a few years later she very quickly moved on to an adult’s level. The only people who missed the whole thing while witnessing a creation of a genius were her parents who concluded she was pretty dum to waste her time on reading. In their eyes she was nothing but an annoying roach. That roach is our little hero, and her name is Matilda.

Her father was a car salesman who enjoyed cheating people out while making big bucks in the process. That latter would be his cheesy choice of words that matched his ugly suit. Once one looked away from his small round black eyes sitting right above his pencil thin evil mustache they would hear a sweet talk and fall into his sticky web of lies.

Her mother was a housewife who did some very important things every day. She made sure her hair was done. Nails too. She would spend a lot of time giving herself a facial and putting on a perfect make up. That was the first part of her daily regime. In the second part she was busy watching TV. She had so many favorite shows it was hard to imagine she had time for anything else. But this wonder woman even squeezed some time to put frozen TV dinners in microwave. That sometimes took several minutes!

Matilda’s brother followed his parents steps. He’s been listening carefully his father's lectures like a good boy so he could get a proper education how to run a dishonest business while learning from his mother how one can do absolutely nothing in the afternoons and evenings. Amazing! Parents were very proud of him.

Dear readers, do you care to learn the names of Matilda’s family? I didn’t think so.

I hope you have fun so far.

The family lived well. Father made good money when charging high prices for used parts while lying to customers he replaced the broken parts with the new ones. The cars would break after a week or two. The family prospered while laughing at “losers.” Except Matilda of course. She confronted her father about it which turned out to be a mistake. He loved snapping at Matilda to shut up and calling her stupid. The occasion to put his second child down on a daily basis didn’t have to be any special. It became a routine. 

When confronted, both parents raised their eyebrows as if she wasn’t annoying enough. When Matilda realized she was only wasting her time, she scolded and went silent. She restrained herself from future remarks and secluded herself in her room, or in an invisible spot of the living-room. But that didn’t keep her out of trouble.

Her father really hated watching her reading. He couldn’t understand what was wrong with her and why she didn’t watch TV like normal people, in his limited opinion. At one point he exploded and destroyed her library-borrowed book. Matilda decided to be more careful and avoided any further incident. She stopped making any comments whatsoever. 

Finally the day arrived when parents expressed aloud their twisted understanding of the world. Matilda’s teacher Ms. Honey came to talk to them about their daughter’s amazing intelligence. Well, she just didn’t know, did she?

And the show began. They told Ms. Honey how they hated seeing Matilda reading. When challenged, the father defended his literacy explaining he’s reading every day Motor and Auto-car. After Ms. Honey pointed out that Matilda read heavy literature like Hemingway he replied that such a stupid act didn’t bring any profit. 

The mother said that “a girl should think about making herself look attractive so she can get a good husband later on. Looks is more important than books, Miss Hunky . . ." Then she topped herself with even more stupidity, “Now look at me, then look at you. You chose books. I chose looks.” 

Ms. Honey still didn’t give up. She told them Matilda was a mathematical genius and that in a few years she could actually go to college. After the parents replied that was all stupid and a waste of time in a world of calculators and colleges where students only picked up bad habits, Ms. Honey finally left. In total disbelief what she had witnessed. 

We laughed hard at this scene while worrying and feeling helpless in desire to rescue poor Matilda from these lunatics she called her family. 

And school was not really a happy zone either. A crazy and sadistic school principal and teacher Ms. Trunchbull enjoyed tormenting children. Her excesses were so extreme that children knew that nobody would believe the stories they witnessed. Would you believe if someone told you that a teacher took a six-year-old child and through it across the meadow, and a chid miraculously survived without any lasting damages?

Ms. Honey was too weak. It turned out she was Ms. Trunchbull’s niece whose aunt managed to break her spirit and found the ways to blackmail her. Ms. Honey’s very own livelihood  depended on her mean aunt who controlled her job and salary.

But sweet justice did catch up with all those maniacs - with Matilda’s help, a little earlier than expected. Her parents had to flee the country when police caught up with her father’s foul business. He would have to pay back a small fortune in taxes as well as other penalties with a possibility of going to prison. Both parents were relieved to leave Matilda behind, letting her stay with Ms. Honey. In the meantime Matilda found a way to scare of Ms. Trunchbull with her temporary kinetic powers. She convinced her that headmistress' brother - Ms. Honey’s late dad as well - had come from the dead to haunt his horrible sister if she didn’t leave his house that actually belonged to his daughter all this time. Therefore Ms. Trunchbull followed the footsteps of Matilda's family and fled the town, to escape the haunting by her dead brother.

Ms. Honey reclaimed her house! She reclaimed her life! 

And took in Matilda to raise her as her own.

Matilda was free of her horrible family! 

Everyone was free of the terrible headmistress!

Some stories have cliche happy endings, but this one had been screaming for one while keeping us in apprehension till the very end.