Perfect. Slept through the night right Away,
Rarely cried or fussed,
Genuinely happy nearly all the Time.
Her parents proclaimed her Sweet nature
Perfect
Over and over. And over.
How could she become Anything but the
Perfect Toddler?
Her chestnut curls were the Source of ooohs and aaahs
Everywhere they went.
Her endearing smile captured Hearts while her
Precocious disposition Surprised and delighted
Friends, Family and Strangers Alike.
Scarlette was the
Perfect little girl.
The naysayers and Glass Half Empties would chide:
Just wait til she's a teenager...
Then you'll have your hands full.
But Scarlette had been schooled in
Perfection and she easily proved the
Cynics wrong.
She received the best marks at school,
Was adored at her part time job at Fizzy Pop,
Joined the missions teams on school breaks and
Always had a kind word to offer.
She was
The Perfect
Teenager.
That's what her parents said.
Over and over. And over.
But inside, where no one could see,
Scarlette was beginning to
Crack.
A tiny fissure at first, an exam that went not well.
That fissure began to widen after a Perfect Boy
Broke her heart.
Scarlette never told anyone about the crack, or the test or the boy...
She never told them she wasn't really
Perfect.
There was a friendship that was marked by betrayal,
Followed by another exam
Followed by a fit of silent tears that
Would
Not
Stop.
Scarlette began to hide in her
Perfect bedroom and
Sob and
Sob and
Scream into her pillow,
"I'm NOT perfect! I'll never be perfect!
I
Can't
Be
Perfect!"
She would cry herself to sleep and in the morning
Wake and clothe herself with her
Perfect Facade
And, smiling through her pain and fear,
Face the day.
When she could no longer bear the weight of her
Awful Secret
Scarlette began to hurt herself.
There was a relief there that she didn't understand
But it made her feel
Alive.
It became her new
Secret and her Best Friend.
Scarlette didn't have to be perfect with her new
Friend,
Didn't have to pretend to be happy or fine or
Perfect.
She didn't even have to feel.
But the
Perfect Friend turned on Scarlette
The Terrible Day that it went
Too Far.
And Scarlette couldn't keep her secret any longer.
Mother And Daddy were
Shocked,
Appalled,
Terrified and
Broken.
They cried and questioned and
Prayed.
They found a place for Scarlette to
Heal.
It was scary.
It was the hardest thing
Scarlette had ever done.
But she never gave up.
Scarlette encountered
The
Perfect
One
Who told her she was precious and beautiful and
Cherished and she didn't need to be perfect because
He saw her as she would one day be
And it freed her.
The Perfect One took on her scars
And in their place
He Wrote
Love
On her arms.
Perfect Love.
