The Misadventures of Cry Baby

Life's a Barbie Game in her Dollhouse

"And in her picture-perfect home

Momma's drunk while Daddy moans

Her brother always comes home stoned

She watches in her room alone"

**********

  Cry Baby awoke to the sound of birds happily chirping in the big oak tree near her window while weak but determined mid-May sunlight was pouring down from the sky into her little bedroom. She squinted at the light and rubbed her aching head, but quickly sat up and stretched when a light knocking sounded from the doorway.

  "Good, you're awake." Cry Baby's mother sashayed into the room without being invited inside. She stopped dead center of the bed Cry Baby was still seated upon, who was watching some warblers play outside. Or watching some warblers play outside until her mother halted in front of her, because she then was obscuring Cry Baby's view of the window.

  "The neighbors are coming over today," she explained this to her daughter as if Cry Baby was no older than two years, "so I want you to wash your face, brush your teeth, comb your hair, and get dressed. And quickly. Your dress is hanging up in my bedroom closet, but don't touch anything else while you're in there. Until you do all of this, you will not get breakfast. Understand?"

  Cry Baby politely nodded, but that didn't really matter as her mother hadn't waited for any answer and was already scurrying out of the room without another word. The moment she was out of sight and the clicking of her high heels had faded, Cry Baby flopped backward onto her mattress and sighed.

  'The neighbors, the neighbors,' Cry Baby held a petulant expression as she reflected. 'Everyone's been talking about the neighbors for a week, since they first moved into this awful neighborhood. Everything recently seems to be revolved around the neighbors. Well, what's the big deal about the guys across the street anyway, huh?'

  Cry Baby's stomach growled. She knew that her mother was not bluffing, that Cry Baby would not receive any food until she was completely ready for the guests.

  She slid off of the bed and reluctantly headed toward the bathroom.

*****

  Cry Baby's mother was crowing, "Places, everyone, PLACES!" and continually raving about the neighbors arriving at any moment as she had since the earliest hour that morning. But Cry Baby remained seated on her family's picture-perfect pink couch and simply glared at 'Mommy Dearest.' 

  After being blatantly ignored, Cry Baby's mother waltzed over to the young girl and cooed, "Oh, Cry Baby, please pose with your brother. Won't you be a good sister for once?" in such a sickly-sweet tone that Cry Baby wanted to run away from that dreadful room or burst into tears or hide away from everyone forever. She wished, more than anything, to be anywhere at all. She longed to be anywhere but there.

  But, of course, she didn't run or hide or cry. Cry Baby didn't want to cause any more trouble than there already was in this household. What Cry Baby did do, however, was stand up and march over to where her sneering brother was standing. She then stood next to him silently and forced a rather apathetic smile upon her face, resisting the urge to send her sibling a scornful expression in return to his.

  Now content, Cry Baby's mother flashed the girl a seemingly pained, and certainly fake, grin. Suddenly, there was a loud DING DONG that rang through the entire building and a Cry Baby's mother striding with pompous to answer the front door. Cry Baby quickly recovered from her jump as her mother, almost halfway to the entrance, turned to her family and mouthed a single word: 'Behave.'