The Girl Who Said No and Other Stories by Clara Lukens Parks

Author:Clara Lukens Parks [Parks, Clara Lukens]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781412215312
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2003-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

This story is dedicated to all boys and girls everywhere who enjoy hearing about someone their age who behaves MUCH WORSE than they do!

(Any resemblance between this character and a living person should be reported immediately to the proper authorities.)

Mildred

Once upon a time there was a girl whom nobody loved. Her father didn’t love her, her brother and two sisters didn’t love her, and what’s worse, her mother didn’t love her. It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s so.

It’s because she was homely, not ugly, just homely. So...so unlovable.

She was a particularly homely baby, and you know how babies are. Everyone loves babies, they say, even when they’re homely, they’re cute. But not this one. She was the exception. Sad but true.

She was so long and thin and bony, and she had knobs and angles where other babies have soft, delicious, cuddly curves.

No one could imagine who she took after. They knew it wasn’t any of them, did the mother and father and grandparents, uncles, cousins and aunts. No outsiders ever dared to say she resembled this or that side of the family. It would have been an insult.

So they ignored her. They almost forgot to name her. They didn’t bother to find a pretty name for her. They didn’t hunt through the family history or the telephone book or the girls’ names section of the dictionary for a suitable name. The way people do with babies. Besides, what name would have been suitable? It bothered them that they had to take the trouble to find any name at all, but it was either that or call her baby all her life, and baby is such a sweet, cuddly name, it certainly wouldn’t have been suitable.

They named her Mildred.

There is nothing wrong with the name Mildred. It’s a nice name. It was just the first name anyone happened to think of, so they took the easy way out. But no one they ever knew named their girl babies Mildred ever after.

No one ever called her Millie. Just Mildred. She didn’t have a middle name. One was enough. Just something to call her when they wanted her. Which wasn’t often.

Have I given you the idea that she wasn’t popular? Let me tell you.

It started when she was still a little baby. Her mother would put her in her buggy and let her howl and scream without once picking her up and cuddling her to soothe her quietness.

The neighbors would say, why can’t you make her be quiet?

And her mother would say, do you think I enjoy it?

Her other three children were quiet, of course. She cuddled them. But who wants to cuddle something that jabs you in the ribs?

When Mildred got a little older, she began to notice things. She began to talk and ask embarrassing questions. It was very disconcerting. Nobody knew what to say to her.

Mother, she would say, Mother, do you love me? She wanted desperately to be loved, a difficult child. Her mother didn’t love her, but still, she didn’t like to hurt Mildred’s feelings.

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