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Karen, the Misbehaved Girl

Mahmoud Suleiman Abdi Dualeh

    Once there was a girl who was as naughty as she was rotten. Her name was Karen. She was small, snobby and would constantly misbehave.
    Karen would tell people what to do even when it was not her place to.
    “Come here,” she would say.
    “Now, go away,” she would add in a rude tone when she was done tormenting others. When her peers would tell the class teacher, Mrs. Arnold, she would lie.
    “Did you act bossy towards your peers, Karen,” the teacher asked.
    “I would never,” Karen would defiantly declare, adding, “not in a million years. They’re lying.”
    Mrs. Arnold, confused by the contrasting stories, told the children, “you have to get along with your fellow peers. Now, off you all go.” Karen got away with it. She then went home.
    Karen was not satisfied with her day’s work yet. She decided to break her parent’s antique vases. Karen held onto the fabric that the vases rested on and started skipping.
    “La di da di dum, this is so much fun,” she sang as the vases broke behind her. Her mother Nancy heard the breaking of the vases and she ran towards the scene.
    She found Karen there and exclaimed, “ you broke our vases!”
    With a mischievous look on her face, Karen said, “No, not me! Adam did it!”
    Nancy called for Adam, “Adam can you come down here.”
    Adam came down quickly and said, “what’s wrong? I thought I heard something.”
    Karen scoffed at Adam as she continued to lie. “Don’t act innocent. You know what you’ve done,” Karen unashamedly said.
    Nancy ignored this. “Adam,” Nancy said calmly, “did you break the vases?”
    “No, I didn’t break them. I was just in my room. They must have broken another way,” Adam replied honestly.
    Nancy looked suspectedly at Karen but said, “ok, your Father and I will get to the bottom of this. Now, run along.” Adam looked angrily at Karen and went off. Karen, with a smile on her face, started skipping away pleased with herself.
    Karen’s family and teachers always appeased her behavior until one day.
    Karen thought she was not being bad enough.
    “I need to go bigger. I need to be worse than I have ever been.”
    Karen thought up a plan to fulfill her desires. She would act like she is playing in the jungle gym and then push someone off it. She went out to enact her plan, climbing the jungle gym alongside other kids. Once she reached high enough, she would look for her target.
    She saw a girl in braids that she knew, Ruba, next to her. Karen then pushed Ruba and yelled, “eat dirt, Ruba!”
    Ruba fell several feet and landed on her back. The kids near her gasped and one of them, who saw what happened, went to call for help.
    Mrs. Arnold rushed towards the jungle gym. She saw Ruba on the ground and Karen still hanging on the jungle gym. Mrs. Arnold looked at the child who called her and asked what happened as she went to pick Ruba up, who did not move.
    “She pushed her,” the child exclaimed as she pointed at Karen, “yeah, she’s really bad,”
    “Karen, what do you have to say about yourself,” Mrs. Arnold asked, infuriated by what she has discovered.
    “I didn’t do it, I swear,” Karen lied. Mrs. Arnold had had enough.
    “I have had it. You have been misbehaving for a long time, little girl. I am going to call your parents. Now, go to the principal’s office,” Mrs. Arnold told Karen.
    Karen went to the principal’s office, finally being called out for her behaviour. She was scolded by the principal. Her parents came and she was scolded some more. She was then expelled.
    Ruba was sent to the hospital. The doctor’s found out that she landed on her spine and was paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors said there was a chance she would never walk again.
    She was made to apologize to Ruba, Adam and the other kids she targeted. She was to be grounded. After her punishment, she went out but none of the kids in the neighborhood would play with her. When hearing about her story, no school would accept her. No adult would trust her.
    Karen lived out the remainder of her life in solitude. She wished she behaved and that her life turned out differently. If she did, then it very well could have.

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