Stubborn
by
Matt Zurbo
Violeta was a small, determined, red haired girl.
With freckles.
And painfully stubborn.
Violeta saw being stubborn as her best trait. “You can’t convince me otherwise!” she would insist.
Billie taught Violeta how to make paper aeroplanes.
“Let’s make 100!” Violeta said.
“Why?” Billie asked.
Violeta just shrugged. She had no idea, other than she never did things by halves.
Billie made three, then went home for dinner. As a kid will do.
Violeta didn’t need to eat that badly. Her stubbornness had locked on. She made paper aeroplanes out of her school diary, and old newspapers, and scrapbooks, and when all her paper ran out, from restaurant menus, and napkins, and from those little ads people wearing silly costumes give out in front of stores.
That still only got her to 89. She counted twice to be sure! It HAD to be 100! Violeta had said she would make that many, so that was what she would do!
“You crazy, stubborn kid…” she mumbled, as she locked herself in her bathroom.
When Violeta’s mother got home from her nightshift past midnight, and went to the toilet, all about the bench and shower, and in the pot plant, were 30 more aeroplanes made from toilet paper.
And, in the background, she could hear her daughter, finally asleep, snoring like 20 buzz-saws.
“So stubborn,” Mum whispered, runner her fingers through her sleeping child’s curly red hair.
Violeta kept making paper aeroplanes after that. She didn’t even know why. “What a waste of energy,” she grumbled, but couldn’t help but make more.
When Billie next came around to visit, she saw Violetta at her little desk, surrounded by two big boxes from the supermarket, each filled with paper planes. She was biting her tongue with concentration, drawing love hearts on the wings of one as small as her thumb, then flowers on another, as big as her head!
“Anyone can fold a paper plane,” she said. “We have to make ours personal.”
“I have an idea!” said Billie. “I’ll write poems, and positive messages on all of them!”
“While I make more!” Violetta cheered.
“And I’ll draw on them, too!”
Why not? thought Violeta. It was something to aim for.
One week later, Billie showed up at Violeta’s house with photo copy paper, old birthday gift wrapping, baking paper. Each one with a positive message;
I like you…
Be kind to someone today…
Stop, and enjoy this moment…
And her favorite; Give good, get good…
Violetta started folding them into aeroplanes, while Billie wrote and drew on those Violetta had already made. Hugs seemed to be a major theme.
Right now, there’s be someone near you who needs a hug…
Quick, hug someone…
Name your top three hugs…
Hugs have power…
And, on others, she simply drew little comic-like people, with never-ending arms, wrapping the whole planet they were on in a hug.
Then, she started writing poems on all the toilet paper planes;
The thing about flowers
is they always surprise,
watch as they bloom,
colours materialise…
And…
I think that leaves
floating on the breeze,
are the most delicate things,
until you sneeze.
On some of her pieces of paper, she drew happy drawings of houses covered in rabbits, or boats full of monkeys. Even a dragon farting clouds. And cute monsters – hugging, of course.
Making so many paper planes was tricky. Violetta’s fingers hurt. She stopped for a break, while Billie simply kept drawing and writing. Bee themed drawings, rose drawings, messages like; Stop a Bully today! And; Quick, tell someone a story! And; Visit your loneliest relative, and; Read a book.
“You’re the best!” said Violeta.
Unfortunately, Violeta was not allowed to take Billie’s paper to school. She spent all of her lunchtime counting from ten-to-one, backwards, to distract herself from her NEED to finish her task. Stubborn!
“Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn…” her teachers whispered.
Only one of them, Mz Gullock, went; “Hm.”
Everybody thought Mz Gullock was odd. She was short and hard rich, curly hair, and wore badges. Lots and lots of badges!
Some people called her Mrs Badge. Mz Gullock didn’t mind. She liked badges. And if she liked something, she liked it a LOT!
After school, Violet and Billie put all their paper panes into a big cardboard box, and ran to the top of hill, where they climbed a stairwell onto an old warehouse roof… and began casting them off.
Planes, paper aeroplanes, gently falling, floating, circling everywhere!
Softly landing throughout town.
If anyone had bothered to ask Violeta why she was so focused on paper aeroplanes, she would have said; “Why not?”. So that was what she whispered, as she launched another, then another, off the tallest roof around.
“Why not…? Why not…?”
From up on the roof, Violeta and Billie saw their paper aeroplanes land in a policeman’s hair,
in skateparks,
fly into offices through open windows,
into cars,
and childcare playgrounds,
and bargain bins in front of stores,
and shopping trollies,
and heard traffic stop, and people pause, as they undid their paper aeroplanes, each one with a small note that said; Read me…
And watched as they read.
And heard cars honk, and people sigh,
and saw kids hug, without really knowing why.
They heard people laugh, and saw commuters smile,
and someone cry with joy,
everybody looking to the sky.
Violeta knew different. She ducked and hid, so nobody would know it was her that gently delivered warming images and messages of happiness from the above.
Traffic was blocked up, angry people shouted angry things, others were so happy they kept hugging, some took the day off. Somebody complained to the police! Everybody who did not have a plane went on treasure hunts to find one. Grown adults in suits, tradies, bore teenagers, petrol station attendants, climbing trees, scaling fences, kicking leaves in gutters, searching…
Kids read poems about farting and laughed
and laughed,
and laughed!
The people that were outraged ran in little circles and argued with the people who were in love!
Quickly, the day became known as; The Paper Aeroplane Incident.
Traffic had stopped, people were made late! Rules were broken! It didn’t take long for the teachers and authorities to figure out who committed the Paper Plane Incident. Violeta had been seen making billions of paper aeroplanes, and Billie was so proud of her drawings, she had signed every one!
The two little girls were brought in front of the school board! Two police officers, and even the local newspaper reporter, were there! It was very intimidating. Kids teased them. Others watched in silent awe. Violeta and Billie had really made waves!
It was too much for Billie, she just loved drawing and having fun.
She cried and said sorry, and the teachers said; “Fair enough.” They said; “Don’t do it again, young lady!” They said; “You’re on yard duty for a month!”
But Violeta simply brushed back her curly red hair, and gave a loud, defiant huff.
“Stubborn!” the teachers said.
“Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!”
To which Violeta said;
“Yes.”
Should they suspend her, or lock her up? There had been chaos, yet most people took their planes home, and talked about them at work, and in queues at the bank;
“I got one with a drawing of a giant rabbit, next to a tiny tree! With a love heart as a sun, of course.”
“I got one of mermaid with wings and a fishbowl helmet full of water so she could breathe!”
“I got one that said; Hug, hug, HUG…!” someone said, as they gave someone else in the queue a hug.
“Hurry up!” complained someone in the queue behind them.
That person didn’t get a paper plane, and was bitter so many people were wasting time.
“Mine was written on newspaper!” said the bank teller.
“Mine said; Take the day off!” laughed the old Italian lady from the greengrocer.
It wasn’t just the traffic, money was lost, classes were interrupted. People were having fun! The authorities took it very serious indeed! No one knew what to do…. except Miss Gullock.
“Do you realise what you have done?” the teachers asked.
“No,” Violeta said.
“People are still throwing your paper aeroplanes at work, some are putting them in frames. Kids are making their own to send messages to each other.”
“That is so cool!” Violeta gasped, in awe.
“No, no, the Paper Plane Incident is very disruptive!” the teachers said.
“Do you have regrets?” the teachers asked.
“No,” Violeta said, with a frump.
“Um.. excuse me?” Mz Gullock said.
The badge lady? This was odd. Everybody stopped.
“Why did you do it?” Mz Gullock asked.
Nobody had thought of that. Mz Gullock believed the word “Why” was the most beautiful, important word a teacher had.
Three little letters from where all learning starts.
Violeta thought.
“I wanted thing to be different for a day.”
And that was it. No pleading, no excuses, no fuss.
“Success…” whispered Billie, with pride.
There was a moments silence. Nobody knew what to do. The teaches, and at least one of the policemen, huddled.
“We are banning you from ever making paper aeroplanes again!” they said.
“That’s fine,” Violet said.
“Oh.”, “Huh?” “Excuse me?” the teachers said.
“I’m into guitar now. I think I’ll write 200 songs.”
“Oh no,” the teachers said.
“She’ll do it, too!”
“My ears!”
“Stubborn…!”
“I know what to do!” cheered Mz Gullock, her badges rattling about as she leapt up. “Imagine if all the kids were as stubborn as her about learning, and making things, and doing things right? Let’s let her teach a stubbornness class!”
“I… What… Um…” the other teachers said.
“Crazy…” Billie grinned.
Weeks passed. Mz Gullock sat behind her desk, in art class, watching Violeta showing her students how to pout, and be frumpy and hold their ground and turn off their tablets and give the world’s most determined frowns… and not give up! To finish every idea they started, no matter how crazy or impossible that idea seemed.
Her students, on the whole, started with big ideas, and saw them through. And stayed back, and got them right, and made the most amazing, wondrous things that they had ever made. It was something special. A real sight!
“Imagine if they stay this stubborn about everything,” Mz Gullock said to Violeta, “What they believe in, what they can achieve, what they might build, the careers they might aspire to, the presents and fun they might make…”
“The town might not be so boring,” Billie said, handing Mz Gullock 15 new badges she had drawn for her.
“Agreed,” Mz Gullock said, putting them on. “I think this might just become the most amazing place.”
She turned to get Violeta’s opinion, but the little, red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, the school speakers crackled and popped and came to life.
As did the train station speakers. And the town hall speakers. And the speakers at the fish and chips shop, and the football oval. Someone had been busy, connecting them all up.
“Testing… One, two… testing…” a small girl’s voice said.
“Oh no…” the teachers said.
“Violeta!” Billie cheered.
“Here we go…” Mz Gullock smirked.
They heard a guitar tuning up.
“For my first song…” Violeta’s voice said.
Stubborn… Mz Gullock thought. As long as Violeta was about, the town would never be boring again.
The End
365 kids books in 365 days 