Queen of the Jungle: A Tale of Childhood
1992; Springer International Publishing; Volume: 18; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0311-4198
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
ResumoIt's good to be twelve years old and the ruler of the world. I rule a jungle inhabited by blue tongue lizards, small brown boys, and girls with womanhood in their grasp. Show us your dick, we call to Eric. Piss off shit features, he scowls back. Not fair. He learns better swear words, better name calling from his dad. His mum hasn't got a real name. Just a string of abusive terms which make us envious when we hear them that we don't have them to use first. So we file them away carefully and yell, show us your dick, to Eric to hear them again. Fuckin pig's arse, he calls as he disappears behind the cut off fence. Fuckin pig's arse, we mutter to each other. Pig's arse! We hoot with laughter at the thought of tight, brown bum holes. Cow's arse! I call, big, brown and sloppy! Cat's bum! screams Leida, micro arse! Elephant's arse! yells Peter, macro bum! By now we're rolling in the grass, holding our bellies that hurt. Fuckin A, we agree, just like they say in those American movies. Leida, get your ass in here, screeches her mother. That cracks us up again. Take yo ass up there, we say, get yo ass up there girl. Get yo pig's ass up there! Leida takes off at a mean trot. Her long brown legs scythe through the grass so gracefully it makes me sick. I fall and stumble and struggle to get by. Even Peter, who is shorter and fatter than I am, manages to move better than me. I think of Mum's ballet class. Pig's arse, I mutter. Ballerina's bum-hole! That cheers me up no end. Hey Peter, wanna go fishing? Yeah, no, dunno, he mumbles. Yeah he does, nah he doesn't wanna be alone with a girl cause he dunno what other kids might say. Shit shit shit shit all my life I'm going to be followed by this shit shit shit! Maybe one day I'll stop caring about it, maybe one day I won't hurt inside when people weigh conventions before me. Social values render me valueless. And I'm in love. He's fourteen, aggressive in a way that will continue to turn me on until I get past the stage of admiring men for their aggression, probably about fifty I figure going on current statistics. Though now I get to writing this down, seeing the pictures the words make, maybe I've just stopped. Right now. But then, he's sure of himself, arrogant with his dark eyes and smoothly cut face. And he's done it. Yeah he did it with his cousin when she came down and stayed for two weeks. Two weeks of hell for me but he did it with her and told his mate who told another mate and it sifted down to us and we were awed. Not by her though. She was just someone he did it with. Girls don't do it, they have it done to them. …
Referência(s)