Matilda

'Of course you may. What's troubling you?'

'Something very peculiar has happened to me, Miss Honey'

Miss Honey became instantly alert. Ever since the two disastrous meetings she had had recently about Matilda, the first with the Headmistress and the second with the dreadful Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Miss Honey had been thinking a great deal about this child and wondering how she could help her. And now, here was Matilda sitting in the classroom with a curiously exalted look on her face and asking if she could have a private talk. Miss Honey had never seen her looking so wide-eyed and peculiar before.

'Yes, Matilda,' she said. 'Tell me what has happened to you that is so peculiar.'

'Miss Trunchbull isn't going to expel me, is she?' Matilda asked. 'Because it wasn't me who put that creature in her jug of water. I promise you it wasn't.'

'I know it wasn't,' Miss Honey said.

'Am I going to be expelled?'

'I think not,' Miss Honey said. 'The Headmistress simply got a little overexcited, that's all.'

'Good,' Matilda said. 'But that isn't what I want to talk to you about.'

'What do you want to talk to me about, Matilda?'

'I want to talk to you about the glass of water with the creature in it' Matilda said. 'You saw it spilling all over Miss Trunchbull, didn't you?'

'I did indeed.'

'Well, Miss Honey, I didn't touch it. I never went near it.'

'I know you didn't,' Miss Honey said. 'You heard me telling the Headmistress that it couldn't possibly have been you.'

'Ah, but it was me, Miss Honey,' Matilda said. 'That's exactly what I want to talk to you about.'

Miss Honey paused and looked carefully at the child. 'I don't think I quite follow you,' she said.

'I got so angry at being accused of something I hadn't done that I made it happen.'

'You made what happen, Matilda?'

'I made the glass tip over.'

'I still don't quite understand what you mean,' Miss Honey said gently.

'I did it with my eyes,' Matilda said. 'I was staring at it and wishing it to tip and then my eyes went all hot and funny and some sort of power came out of them and the glass just toppled over.'

Miss Honey continued to look steadily at Matilda through her steel-rimmed spectacles and Matilda looked back at her just as steadily.

'I am still not following you,' Miss Honey said. 'Do you mean you actually willed the glass to tip over?'

'Yes,' Matilda said. 'With my eyes.'

Miss Honey was silent for a moment. She did not think Matilda was meaning to tell a lie. It was more likely that she was simply allowing her vivid imagination to run away with her. 'You mean you were sitting where you are now and you told the glass to topple over and it did?'

'Something like that, Miss Honey, yes.'

'If you did that, then it is just about the greatest miracle a person has ever performed since the time of Jesus.'

'I did it, Miss Honey.'

It is extraordinary, thought Miss Honey, how of ten small children have flights of fancy like this. She decided to put an end to it as gently as possible. 'Could you do it again?' she asked, not unkindly.

'I don't know,' Matilda said, 'but I think I might be able to.'