If little Elizabeth were like a Tom Sawyer or a Bart Simpson, then this scene might make a little more sense. Tom Sawyer and Bart Simpson are characters notorious for playing practical jokes, so it would be easy to believe that they would spray a parent through a window with a water hose, and then run away to hide from the parent laughing about their prank. Even if it was an accident, because of their history of doing practical jokes, you could understand why the parent might think it was a prank anyway.
Little 8-year-old Elizabeth is not like a Tom Sawyer or a Bart Simpson. You can tell from her thoughts about washing windows that she was in the middle of doing a chore and this was an accident. Nevertheless, Elizabeth is so frightened of Elly’s wrath demonstrated by her colourful cursing that it did not even occur to her to just say, “Oops! Sorry. I’ll be right in and clean up that water, mum.” Instead she is cowering in fear of her mother behind some trellis, so nervous that she is chewing on her knuckle.
If little Elizabeth were like a Tom Sawyer or a Bart Simpson, then this scene might make a little more sense. Tom Sawyer and Bart Simpson are characters notorious for playing practical jokes, so it would be easy to believe that they would spray a parent through a window with a water hose, and then run away to hide from the parent laughing about their prank. Even if it was an accident, because of their history of doing practical jokes, you could understand why the parent might think it was a prank anyway.
Little 8-year-old Elizabeth is not like a Tom Sawyer or a Bart Simpson. You can tell from her thoughts about washing windows that she was in the middle of doing a chore and this was an accident. Nevertheless, Elizabeth is so frightened of Elly’s wrath demonstrated by her colourful cursing that it did not even occur to her to just say, “Oops! Sorry. I’ll be right in and clean up that water, mum.” Instead she is cowering in fear of her mother behind some trellis, so nervous that she is chewing on her knuckle.