Chapter 9 – Repentance
During those days Carlotta paid a lot of attention to the way she ordered people around. She was beginning to recognize her hard impact and realize that her manner would not be tolerated. So she began to say things such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. The girls gradually began to listen to her requests and to respect her enough that she was satisfied. She no longer interrupted songs and performances, and waited till it was done before she expressed her opinions.
The girls admired her just a little for the change in her behavior – but then, they thought, wasn’t that the way an adequate producer should behave? No one shared their thoughts with her, in case she might be angry.
But the anonymous letter writer still got on Carlotta’s nerves. True, she had gotten a letter only once that week – but what if it were just a trap to let her forget about it and after a few days, back another came again? She couldn’t, couldn’t keep all these frightening thoughts merely to herself. That was the coward’s way. Carlotta was a thick-skinned girl. She wasn’t a coward! She wasn’t!
She shared her thoughts with Andrea, her friend.
“Now I feel awful. I’m so miserable about it. But before the culprit is found, what can be done?” sighed Carlotta, frowning.
“Don’t fret!” said Andrea. “Whoever wrote this will be found out! She must have a conscience. Don’t turn into a coward just because of a note or two! I’m sure you wouldn’t want people to laugh at you for being a coward.”
Now, the letter-writer just passed by and happened to hear it. It was true – she did have a conscience! Now she felt awfully guilty. She raced swiftly through the crowds of girls and went to the toilet and sobbed. What should she do?
“I must own up!” she whispered softly to herself. “I must. The ghost of the letter affair creeps around my conscience. I will hold a meeting tomorrow and the truth will be before their eyes. This is what I deserve, I suppose, and I shall not weep but gladly accept the punishment the girls hand out to me.”
So to the surprise of the girls, that particular girl held a meeting the next night.
“What’s up?”
“Just be seated. Then you shall never see me again, but remember me in my entire loathsomeness.”
The girls were all assembled in the little music room.
“I suppose, a quarter of you know about that little anonymous letter affair. Letters with spiteful contents were hidden in Carlotta’s different daily belongings, but with no name at the end. Many of you may enquire why I have brought this up, and I will now answer you.”
This affair was new to most of the girls, and many were curious about it.
“I am the one, thinking out all that malice and putting it onto paper, sending them to Carlotta. She has been very tolerable about this, and I must thank her for forking her ways also, after my spiteful reminders that I should not have given. After she changed, I felt so sorry that I did it. I felt it was of no value – the coward’s way. I did not mean it for spite, but just a reminder – but my real thoughts poured out in malice in those letters. I was too much of a coward to tell her directly; I was afraid she might be angry. So I wrote these letters, blindly not seeing my folly. When I overheard Carlotta’s miserable condition, I felt so guilty that I ran to the toilet and sobbed. I felt I must let you know, I am this hateful girl, so I held a meeting today. Meanwhile, I must go and let Miss Caty know, and let her tell me my punishment. While I am gone, you must also work your own punishment for me, otherwise there will not be real repentance with me. What led me up to do this was not just Carlotta’s manner, but the way she rejected and embarrassed my friend, my best friend, Sophie. It was purely out of friendship.”
The girls were overawed by that particular girl’s honesty and bluntness and sensibility. Sophie found her eyes full of tears. She cried softly. Harriet, that girl who wrote the letters, had been a girl not at all popular, but now, seeing through her cold iron curtain blocking her real self, they saw the real Harriet, her character, and regarded her with warmth and intense liking.
Harriet poured everything out to Miss Caty – how Carlotta embarrassed Sophie, how she had wanted to remind Carlotta, and how that led up to this anonymous letter-writing.
Miss Caty nodded slowly. “I see. It was all because of one’s wrong decision in a moment. You must learn to make the right decisions, Harriet. You do not have a bad character. You are honest and sensible. Perhaps this is just a lesson that has been set up for you to learn. You must remember this mistake, not to do it again. I think that you should just ask the girls to judge you – whatever punishment they want should be fine. I have a good grade there.”
“Shall… shall I be expelled?” asked Harriet, shaking her legs that had gotten thinner because of this, terrified.
“Probably not,” answered Miss Caty, rather gravely. “My fourth grade is rather forgiving, but that still lies upon the girls.”
When Harriet got back up, she was surprised to find the girls laughing their heads off, rolling about on the floor.
“What are you doing?” said Harriet, suddenly finding herself able to giggle.
“You’ll see!” cried the girls.
Felicia stepped forward, and said, “Now here is your punishment. You used a particular pencil for the notes, didn’t you?”
“Yes! It was a mechanical one. I bought a particularly bold lead – five packs of it.”
“Well, you must throw away those leads and that pencil, and never get the same one again, nor the same brand. And never get that boldness of lead again.”
“Fine!” cried Harriet, seeing the joke. She too was in tears of laughter.
Now that Carlotta and Harriet saw their follies, they repented in fast motion. They were soon very popular.
Sophie was back in the show, and was even given a solo part! The others gazed in admiration at the changed Carlotta. To have chucked someone out and put her back in as a soloist! It was unbelievable. But yet it was true. Carlotta’s hard impact slipped away, but gentleness came back into her. She still was good-humored and fun, but respected others’ feelings and opinions. She no longer bossed others around, but let them try to work together. She never was self-righteous when she was in the wrong. She was a changed girl entirely.
Harriet became a lot of fun. She was just as nice and eager as everyone else, but acted calmly and never lost control over her thoughts. She too was a changed character. Felicia had no particular friend, but she rather liked Harriet, and to everybody’s surprise, Harriet took Felicia as her friend and still remained loyal to Sophie, but explained how much she was in need of a sensible friend. Sophie knew herself not to be sensible. Even though she was not Harriet’s real friend anymore, she still had a friend! That was quite enough for a girl like Sophie.
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