Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned

This is definitely not a story for the faint hearted. Its about a girl I knew who was raised by the two most dangerously superficial women one could ever encounter. This was her mother and grandmother, who both married diplomats, for every opportunity to invoke their own secret dominion. By the time I got to know them, the old ambassador had long since retired, and truly fed up with their games of manipulation, had taken to locking himself away in his attic retreat. On the rare occasion that we were able to communicate, I found him quite forthright and unpretentious. He despaired over the ruthless guile of these two women, and was sure the granddaughter was beyond any hope salvation from their persistent misguidance. Indeed he warned me they were not to be trusted in any way or form. He had confidence, however, in my strong independence of mind, hoping possibly, it might teach them that long needed lesson in respect...but they were even beyond that. These women were totally Machiavellian, with that sickly sweet allure of a Venus fly trap. The grandmother was one of those arrogant divas from the Berlin theatrical scene. Indeed, their idea of friendship was pure theatrical manipulation- with the kind of imposing cordiality I'm sure inspired such writers as Stephen King and John Carpenter. Of course if you tried to say anything contrary, this was cunningly intercepted by "would you like a coffee? a piece of cake, a cookie?"...and no matter how often I said "no thank you" they persisted in this tactic throughout the entire discussion. "Are you sure you don't want one? Oh but you must try one". They just couldn't take no for an answer and no matter how blatantly I refused, they still could not resist the surreptitious urge. Fortunately for all their single mindedness they didn't have a clue about me, so any attempt to beguile my friends only made them leery.

Typically, diplomatic families, for all their incessant social calls, tend to lose any sense in the need for a balanced diet. It usually ends up with them living solely off hors d'oeuvres, believing they can avert any subsequent malnutrition through the compulsive intake of multivitamin concentrates. Needless to say, this girl not only grew up anorexic but so biochemically screwed up that she became psychotic. To make matters worse, those two women had completely spoiled and indoctrinated her with the pathos that men should have no other purpose than prove their love through complete subservience. Of course wherever this failed, she inclined to ever more violent tantrums. Uncannily she had much the same expectations of anyone she assumed to be her "friend". Inevitably this reduced her popularity down to a hand full of fools, who themselves were just as misguided. Of them, one particular sucker for punishment became her mate- who despite the increasing frequency of her violent attacks, would not listen to reason. Like his friends, it was always the same denials- "But you don't understand, she's just so beautiful and talented". "Oh yeah?" I declined, "Just keep on fooling yourselves, and inevitably people are gonna get killed". To make a long story short, that is exactly what happened about five years later. It was hard times, with everyone losing their jobs for all the businesses folding after the Canadian forces pulled out of the area. The last I saw of her was at the employment office, trying to apply for benefits to support their two children. No one is sure what exactly happened, but it is clear they couldn’t make ends meet anymore. By all accounts, after a heated argument with her two matriarchs, she took a spade that night, struck down her husband and assuming he was dead, proceeded to hack up her two children. By the time he regained consciousness, it was already too late. All he could do was barricade himself in the bathroom. It was at that point in her blind rage, that she resolved to stab herself to death with a butcher knife. A friend of mine had the unpleasant task of cleaning up the mess after the investigation. He could only describe the scene as resembling that of an abbatoire. Another friend whose cousin was the chief investigator of the case was equally horrified. This was more than just domestic violence gone amok. The sheer brutality of it spoke whole volumes of a vengeance for everything not being as she insisted. Don’t ask me what the moral of the story is. I do not believe in a perfect world, but what could be more futile than give life only to take it all away with such remorseless brutality? I can only blame it on the delusions of "ideal society" trying reduce human behaviour into something so affectatious, the consequences should be no surprise. What more can I say?