She continued in a childish voice: "Now Priscilla. Margaret's friends giggled nervously, waiting for my reaction. "For your information, dweeb, my friends and I are trying to listen to music. "Hey! What in hell do think you're doing?" To my amazement, she marched over and actually yanked the power cord from the socket. Oh, well, at least school was out for the summer.Ī couple of days later, I was playing a video game in my room when Margaret and her collection of bratty friends burst into my room. I knew it was useless to complain Mom would only tell me to stop being a wuss. Mom didn't seem to notice I guess she was too busy with the divorce and stuff. Now that he was gone, she really stepped it up. When Dad was around, he never let Margaret get away with her crap. Worse, I always turned beet red, which just invited more teasing. I tried to ignore the teasing, but it really embarrassed me. The ladies at the cleaners thought it was hilarious to say stuff like, "When do you need your dresses, dear?" "Oh, I bet you look just darling in this one." "Don't you think this dress is a little sophisticated for a boy your age?" "I bet your boyfriend just loves you in this!" Ha-ha, very funny. I felt like an idiot handing over that girly stuff to be cleaned. She even talked Mom into making me start doing some of her chores stuff like delivering and picking up Mom's dresses and skirts at the dry cleaners. She went out of her way to annoy me, acting like I was her personal slave or something. Without Dad around to put her place, she became unbearable. That summer, before the custody trial, Margaret got way out of hand. Lots of times, Margaret and the lawyer would whisper and giggle, even when Mom wasn't around. She was always telling Margaret how clever she was and went on and on about how much Margaret reminded her of herself when she was that age. On the other hand, she and Margaret seemed to be instant friends. I think the lawyer knew I didn't like her, because she didn't even pretend to be friendly to me. Proctor, to represent her in the custody dispute. Mom was concerned enough that she even hired this bitchy woman lawyer, Ms. Maybe she bragged too much, because sometimes I caught Mom's friends and our neighbors rolling their eyes as Mom went on and on about what a perfect son I was and what a great man I was destined to be. She was very proud of her "little man," and she bragged about me all the time. She told me it was because she loved me too much to have me turn out like my father. I never figured my Mom would care so much about having custody of me. I told both my parents that as a guy, I really needed to have the guidance of a live-in male authority figure. I wanted to be just like him when I got older. We did everything together ball games, fishing, backpacking, the works. I loved Mom and all that, and she really loved me, but Dad and I were best buds. The idea of living without Dad in a house with Margaret was more than I could take. After my Dad left my Mom to marry Angie, his secretary, I begged him to let me live with him. It started with the custody battle during my parents' divorce. Why? I wondered disconsolately as we left the cinema.In retrospect, the biggest mistake I made was underestimating my younger sister, Margaret underestimating her cunning, her spite, and her ingenuity. I have a vivid memory of sitting in the theatre for the first Harry Potter film, having made the mistake of re-reading the book a short time before I was in a perfect position to notice every difference, every detail that had been changed, every funny line of dialogue the writers had decided, for some incomprehensible reason, not to include. I have, on occasion, been proven right (Joe Wright’s adaptation of Atonement is an all-time favourite, and don’t get me started on the BBC’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) but more often than not, I am disappointed. I will walk into a cinema (or, more recently, open a streaming platform) full of expectation, convinced – although the evidence suggests otherwise – that the film will somehow reflect exactly my own understanding of the book. As far as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in film adaptations of books.
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