Before you call out the morality police on this one, remember we’re talking about two very little girls.
********
While Jennie and Carl were gone, Hallie and Mona had engaged in a new activity. In the privacy of the playhouse they played what they called “show naked.” No sooner had they gone on to something else than the guilt attacked them. They just knew it was wrong.
Guilt hurts. At least it hurt Mona, so badly that she retreated to the privacy of the bathroom where she could moan without anyone noticing. That night she slept tight – I mean, her body was tight. It was as if she were stiffening herself two inches above the mattress. As the sleep-disturbed nights went on, the days were worse and worse. Nothing was fun.
“I think we should tell our mothers,” she pleaded with Hallie.”
“Oh no, I’ll never tell my mother.” Hallie thought of the switch her mother used as punishment.
The worst punishment Mona had ever suffered was when Jennie washed her mouth out with Lux soap for swearing. That really burned, she remembered. But she’d rather have that than the awful pain of guilt.
So, on the day Jennie went to fetch the fur coat and visit the milliner to design the hat, Mona decided she couldn’t stand the pain any more. When her mother got home she gave her time to hang the coat on the light fixture in the upstairs hall where she always put her new things. Then Mona choked her confession through her tightened throat.
“Thank you for telling me,” Jennie said. “Don’t ever do it again.”
All they did was watch each other urinate, she thought. I guess it’s good they felt guilty. They’re not likely to do worse things.
Mona had been feeling so bad that the relief was almost as good as Christmas. She floated across the back yard to tell Hallie.
Hallie never did tell her mother.
The fur on that coat always had a special sweet feel.
monagustafsonaffinito 