Occidental Trifle

Maggie was different from her family. Maggie was quite unlike anybody she knew. Maggie had such a short stature that those in her household at times found it a struggle to accomodate. Maggie simply had no regard for any time, consequence or person outside her immediate acquaintance.

It seemed Maggie was perpetually in trouble for the licentiousness of her habits. She had no capacity for anticipation. Every day new evidence emerged of the myopic ineptitiude of her planning. Food was one example. Maggie simply ate when she felt hungry. She took great relish in arriving ust as the rest of the table were about to embark on a meal. Maggie would insert herself between two chairs and start picking at other peoples food. It never occurred to anyone to stop her. It was Maggies way to be forgiven. Her face was so innocent that it was impossible to inspire malice.

On top of everything else, Maggie was very distractable and roamed about the house in search of novelty to engage her interest. If she were ever allowed to escape the house and the loving atention of those inside, the consequences might have been very frightening. She ate with a spoon, as she had trouble with forks. She was nimble enough when stroking, kissing and caressing her folk, but dropped enough that people were cautious of giving her crockery.

All of these things, together, might seem a nuisance. In truth her social environment did not seem to notice any inconvenience and the troubles she suffered was tiny in proportion to what she caused. The situation may have deteriorated had it contrived to persist for longer, but fortunately everyone, most of all Maggie, knew that it would not last forever. Almost all of the incapacity which I have described can be blamed on the brevity of Maggies existence in the world. In other words, Maggie was an infant. The story begins while our heroine is just two years of age. The scene in which she landed on earth could have been prettier and in some respects were wanting. Nevertheless Maggie had such a tenacious propietary sense of her position in the universes that her bearing gave even passing strangers a strong feeling of her destiny.

Maggie grew up in the semi-arid wilderness of Western New South Wales.

Maggie does not like her name, the minister explains that it is a holy name variation on MARY, but a reason emerges to change it and her second name is GRACE which sells the idea to the minister.

Maggie shares a bathroom with a boarder where she finds a handkerchief containing fresh semen and show this to the spinster teacher who believes it to be phlegm, in order to get the day off. She uses the day off to stalk a boy, she is noticed and changes her name to escape detection.