The Joker!

Words were hard to find to describe her altered state. She arrived home at five, fifty-five in the morning, happy with herself, and glitzy. Regularly she would repeat a similar scenario. Clearly, she had forgotten she had a daughter who was quietly sleeping while she jested with her father.

The fact of the matter is her daughter would be woken up in 35 minutes by her father who had become the mother and father of his granddaughter. The real father had abandoned her early on and though he lived close by would rarely visit. In fact, she never even got a phone call.  If she was lucky, he would come once in the blue moon, or visit once a year.

On this particular occasion her sister had arrived the previous evening with her niece. Though her sister was travelling on business and had left minutes before her arrival, her niece had been left behind until her return in a few days’ time.

She, the joker was aware of this fact, and her father had been told by his wife that she would be looking after her. Afterall, he had a life and had plans for the daytime, and his wife also had a full day’s work. In other words, he’d been told that she would be looking after her niece, and as she wasn't working it is the least she could do for her sister..

When she arrived half-cut, he wasn’t happy. Could you blame him under the circumstances? She needed to be ready to take care of her two-year-old niece who would likely awaken shortly. She was jobless, and carrying on like someone who hadn’t got a care in the world.

He couldn’t get through to her. She should have known of her responsibility to grow up and take the burden off her parents. She wasn’t a young woman, and to the contrary she was in her late thirties. It was more than irresponsible to act like a young adult.

Imagine the impact on her daughter’s life. The fact her real father wasn’t around, and then seeing her mother arriving home half cut when she had just woken up.

The fact of the matter was her father was tired of having to be the one who had to see his daughter prancing around like a spoilt brat, unemployed and taking advantage of the fact she had returned to live with her parents.

Take care!

Prof. Carl Boniface

Vocabulary builder:

Glitzy (adj) = showy, ostentatious, swanky, flashy, extravagant, plush, ritzy

Jested (v) = clowned, joked, kidded, teased, quipped

The idiom “once in a blue moon” means something happens very rarely or infrequently

Niece (n) = a daughter of one's brother or sister, or of one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law.

Half cut (idiom) = The idiom "half-cut" has a few meanings, including:

• Partially severed or divided: For example, "half-cut citrus fruits lying around"

• Intoxicated with alcohol: For example, "he looks half-cut already"

Shortly (adv) soon, presently, just, before long, in a while, in a minute, in a moment, in a bit, right away, (ant) later

Prancing (v) = cavorting, dancing, frolicking, gamboling, reveling, strutting flouncing, cavorting, sashaying

Brat (n) = imp, little monster, spoiled brat, unpleasant, little horror, (ant) cherub (angel, cupid, amoretto, putto)