Was
Melody was a good kid
Melody was a good kid.
She smiled and curtseyed and said please and thank you and your welcome.
At the store one day, she wanted a piece of candy. Her mother said no.
While her mother was distracted, a woman with a black hoodie and sunglasses urged Melody to take it anyway.
“It’s so small and the store is so big. No one will even know.”
Melody was a good kid.
She smiled and curtseyed and said thank you and your welcome.
There was a spelling test in school one day. She wasn’t prepared at all.
On the way to school that morning, she passed a woman with a black hoodie and sunglasses who was talking on her phone.
“…yeah well, I cheated. Of course I did. If I didn’t know the answer, someone next to me always did.”
Melody was a good kid.
She smiled and curtseyed and said your welcome.
A new girl moved into the house next door. Melody’s mother said she should go over and introduce herself. Maybe they could be friends.
A woman with a black hoodie and sunglasses was walking her dog. A pit bull with big teeth. The hoodie was unzipped, showing a white t-shirt. The t-shirt read “friends are enemies waiting to happen”. It had a picture of a skull on it.
Melody thought the shirt was cool.
Melody was a good kid.
She smiled and said your welcome.
During show and tell, one of the boys brought an super hero action figure to show the class. It had arms that moved and a cape. The boys were careless, throwing it back and forth during recess. When the bell rang, they ran back to class, forgetting to pick it up. Melody found it and picked it up.
As she walked back to class, a woman in a black hoodie and sunglasses, probably a parent, held the door open for her.
“Nice super hero, kid. If I had one of those I’d hold on to it. It’s gonna be worth something someday.”
“Oh. It’s not mine,” Melody said.
“You sure about that,” the woman answered.
Melody was a good kid.
She smiled.
She smiled because she learned how to take what she wanted without getting caught.
She smiled because it was smarter and easier to cheat than it was to study.
She smiled because she was her own best friend. She was the only one that would never let her down.
She smiled because she finders were keepers, and she was a finder.
Melody shortened her name to Mel. It sounded cooler.
No.
It sounded more bad ass.
Way more bad ass.
Melody was too cutesy.
She wasn’t cutesy.
Not anymore.
Mel changed her hair.
Mel wanted a pierced nose. Her mom said no.
She found a way to do it anyway.
Mel changed the way she dressed.
She found a black hoodie and a pair of sunglasses and put them on.
She looked at her reflection.
Melody was a good kid.
Was.
I was good once, too.
I really like how the repetition changes as Melody changes. At the beginning, “Melody was a good kid” comes with innocence: the smiling, the curtseying, the please and thank you. But each time she crosses another boundary, that line gets smaller. Something is being chipped away. By the end, she is still smiling, but it means something completely different now.
The kindness has hollowed and that final “Was” lands so well because we have watched the loss happen one small choice at a time. Excellent piece. ~ Nerra