Trigger Warning/Disclaimer: Contains non-sexual child abuse and swearing. Reader discretion is advised. Also I do not own Matilda: not the Roald Dahl book nor the Musical adaptation nor the 1996 movie for which this is almost solely based on.
"This Little Girl"
She was only seven years old...
"Jenn, do you know what happens to little girls who steal things," states a fearsome "woman", known as the Trunchbull, in a teasing sing song tone. Her and the little girl she is speaking to both know the answer to this question.
"But I didn't steal anything Aunt Agatha!" defends the twig of a child with medium coffee colored eyes and chocolate colored hair. "Those candies belonged to me and daddy! He always said it was for both of us."
"Well Jennifer, your dear ol' daddy is dead!" mocks the giant, ogre like woman, "him having to deal with you put him into an early grave! And since the candies now belong to me, as they had for these past two years, you have once again stolen from me. I am beginning to think that you need a hasher punishment."
Jennifer looks at the beast lady defiantly. She is smart enough to know that this woman was the real cause to her biggest problems, but not smart enough to know when to choose her battles.
"No it doesn't belong to you!" yells the child angrily, "You got everything! And you killed him! I just know you were involved!"
"Keep up with that attitude and these "lies" and I'll throw you out onto the streets!" threatens the Trunchbull, which is a lie because she needs Jennifer to hold onto the estate and the money, since everything is technically in a modified trust for the orphan. If the Trunchbull stopped "caring" for her niece, the gravy train would end. Magnus Honey was a great doctor who could afford a great lawyer, but he also had a heart of gold. He had taken in his sister in-law after his wife died of illness when their daughter was only two years old. Jennifer was his greatest accomplishment and he had believed that if something were to happen to him, that Agatha would take care of her. He would be rolling in his grave if he could see how his only child was being raised by her aunt.
"I'm beginning to think that would be better for me!" replies the shaking child, "You starve me for taking a few candies after all the chores I do for you! The other kids at school don't starve for being bad!"
"Listen you little smart-ass maggot!" screeches the ogre woman as she harshly grabs her deceased younger sister's only child by the right arm, hard enough to hear a sickening crunch as she pulls the child up in the air into her face. Agatha was a 1972 Olympic champion for shotput, hammer throw, and javelin. That little girl's arm was badly broken, if not shattered.
"You can be my obedient little niece, my Jenn, and respect me. With all the pleasures of a nice home, which is not owed to you. Nothing is owed to you!" yells the Trunchbull fiercely, "Or suffer a fate worse than the Chokey!" The implication of "or I will kill you too, just like your father" was quite obvious.
"I'm sorry Aunt Agatha," apologizes the young girl through pain filled clenched teeth, "Please forgive me. I promise I will be better. I won't touch the candy anymore. Please make the pain stop!"
"My discipline is no one else's business. I will forgive your transgressions as long as you repeat exactly what I tell you about how you got your injuries!" orders the middle aged bully.
"I will Aunt Agatha," pleads Jennifer with tears in her eyes, her aunt had never broken one of her bones before. Usually, she got locked in a smelly closet and was starved for a day or two, that was the worse her punishments by her aunt had been. This was way worse than any of that. "I hurt my arm after climbing a tree. My Aunt warned me not to. I didn't listen."
"Very good Jenn," agrees the evil woman eagerly, "To see that this incident is all but forgotten, I think I am going to send you away to a nice school most of the year from now on. Only the best for my one and only niece."
***Twenty Years Later...******
She was only Seven years old.
"Thanks for rescuing the kite, Matilda," replies the sheepish, red faced Bruce Bogtrotter, a round boy with curly brown hair and a currently missing charming smile, "I don't think it was worth it though. Are you alright?"
"My arm hurts, Brucey," winces the girl in pain as she drops a bright red kite to the grassy ground next to a large tree. The kite was a new present from the friendly boy, "I think its broken!"
"Don't move, I'll go get your mom!" offers said boy as he runs towards the nice home that was once a prison for a very similar little girl.
Today it was her birthday and she was starting seven years old with a broken arm. Matilda was worried what her new mother would think. Miss Jennifer Honey had adopted Matilda formerly Wormwood only a few months ago. Her birth parents were bad people, but Matilda had never broken an arm with them. This girl, who resembled a young Jennifer and who could easily pass as her natural born child, was a miracle. A genius who was raised in an awful household, Matilda's life had only just started this past year. A genius? Right...if she truly was that smart she would have listened to Miss Ho-her mom and not climbed that tree. Matilda thought she could handle it with her "secret" telekinesis powers, but it was too windy and her balance was bad. The tree was not very sturdy, as her mother warned and the girl fell and had now broken her right arm. It hurt...a lot.
"Matilda!" cries Miss Honey, as the elementary school principle and former first grade teacher runs towards her daughter, "What happened? I thought I heard you scream and then Bruce came running to me to come out here."
"My right arm hurts mommy!" cries Matilda, as any hurt little girl in pain should towards her mother, "I think I broke it! I was climbing that tree. I should have listened to you, I feel like such a dummy!"
"Try to calm down dear," advises the concerned mother, "We should take you to the hospital to get an x-ray to find out for sure what is wrong. Matilda dear, We all make mistakes, hopefully we can learn from this in the future. For now try not to move your arm and relax. I am not angry with you; Bruce, you should go to your mother on the porch and let her know what is going on. Let her know I am sorry but I have to cancel the rest of the picnic."
"Sure thing Miss Honey," agrees Bruce, "I hope you feel better soon Matilda! Happy Birthday! See you later!"
One trip to the hospital and then the ice cream store nearby later, Mother and daughter return home in the evening. The later wearing a bright white new cast on her right arm held in place with a dark blue sling. After getting her daughter ready for bed, Jennifer decides to tell a story from the past.
"Matilda," starts Miss Honey with a bit of trepidation, not wanting to hurt her daughter more with something from her past, "You are brilliant and very mature, but you are still a little girl. You are allowed to make mistakes, even if they do not make logical sense. Everyone does. Even I did and do."
"When I was seven, your age," begins the woman calmly, with fear in her eyes of ghosts of the past, "I made Trunchbull very angry with me..."
Sometime after the story...
"Mommy that's horrible!" shouts Matilda, "Wait, I am sorry that was not using my inside voice. But still, how could she get away with that?"
"She was the only "family" I had left at the time," reminds the now blonde haired former brunette woman, "She was an adult and I was a child. And it can be hard for children to be believed over adults now, you do not even want to imagine then."
"So, you are not mad at me for breaking my arm?" asks Matilda worriedly, "Even though I did something du-even though I made a mistake?"
"I am not exactly happy you hurt yourself, especially by ignoring me," replies the woman sternly, "But angry no. Just worried and also hopeful you will listen to me a little better next time. I am however glad it was a true accident that you hurt yourself instead of what I had to go through growing up."
"I wish I could hug you, but..." Matilda looks down at her casted arm sadly, "I can't right now. I definitely will think twice before climbing a tree in the future."
"And I will still be here to give you a hug instead when you need it dear," assures the mother warmly as she gently gives her daughter a hug, mindful of the placement of the cast, "Because I love you dear, you were always meant to be mine."
"I love you too mommy," smiles Matilda tiredly, "Goodnight."