Tulip loved teasing other children. “The little black curls of dried dog mess sat in the present’s crumpled tissue nest.” This quotation explains when she played a nasty prank on a boy in her class, Jamie Whitton. The present was suppose to be his late Christmas gift, but to his surprise it definitely wasn’t. While on the bus ride to school, she would play the game, ‘Stinking Mackerel’. The rules were very simple. Tulip wrinkled her nose; made a tiny sniff and a fleeting look of disgust towards people. These gestures Tulip made, were intentional for people to feel as if something was wrong with their appearance or if they had body odour. When walking Natalie’s brother, Julius home from school she occasionally vanished in the trees to upset him when he recognizes nobody is with him.
She had a caring heart for animals. In all that cluster of rudeness, she still hated her dad killing the kittens. He placed them in a crock half filled with water and close the lid. The poor kittens scrambled and pushed at the top for hours mewing and scratching until they died. Tulip despised the crying sounds of the kittens and her father for doing this terrible procedure. In order for him to stop this, Tulip killed the stray kittens herself before her father spots them. She made sure her method was quick and easy. “And once they’re under water, I never let them up again.”
Tulip was a sadistic person. She enjoyed inflicting pain on other things to make them feel the same pain that inflicts on her. After Tulip’s principle told her, that her dad was being called for her inappropriate uniform, she found 3 whiskey bottles filled with kerosene and set the shed on fire. “ Huge flames licked the sky and smoke billowed up like a giant genie freed from a bottle after thousands of years.” All the interior and exterior of the shed burned and crackled to bits of singed wood. She didn’t like anyone being mean to her or they would have to suffer her consequences. When her friend, Natalie deserted her and she had no friends, Tulip decided at the end of the novel to burn the Palace down. “ Oh, clever, clever Tulip!”
She was very interested and curious of how a person or thing died. As soon as Tulip heard the news of Muriel Brackenbury drowning to death, she exploded with ideas. She imagined the detail of what Muriel was doing all that time. “To get so close to the bank and still go under. Swallowing all that water.” Tulip went on about, after Muriel continuously swallowing the water, that Muriel would find herself too swollen to come back up to the surface. Not just the death Tulip was interested in but the grief of the family, who suffered. She tried picturing the bad dreams Muriel’s sister; Janet would have at night of Muriel drowning. Instead of her thinking of ideas in her head, she started doing the actions out loud. The Brackenbury family had a complaint about Tulip to the police about her knocking to the door of their ho use and asking for Muriel. “Three times!”
Tulip made people feel sorry for her.
Tulip is definitely not a girl you would see in your daily lives. Just her comment alone on the colour pink can discourage you. “Pink reminds me of nice little girls.” Of course that she wasn’t. I wonder if anyone one day would really have the patience and time to help this poor, confused and evil-minded child to help her emotionally and physically.
