The three little girls had real girl names, but Grandma re-named them "I Want, " "Shut Up," and "Leave Me Alone" for obvious reasons.
I Want was the youngest. She rarely went to the basement, she usually stayed upstairs with Grandma, for it was a tad safer for a toddler her age than navigating steep stairs and snaggy vines and spines. So Grandma mostly heard from her, "Grandma, I want a piece of paper, I want a crayon, I want a glass of water," etc. I Want got her name just because she was too small to get anything for herself.
Shut Up was always talking, so of course she wanted everyone else to shut up! Shut Up was a sort of tyrant that liked to stir the pot, and was usually the instigator in the territorial disputes in the jungle basement. Shut Up liked to smash other people's towers and castles they were building with twirling batons or whatever she could find that would do the trick. Shut Up was in the middle, a shitty place to be sometimes.
Leave Me Alone was the first born. She remembered just how quiet it was before the other two. She always got to play with her toys when she wanted, the wolves even acted like they listened to her when she spoke. There was no one sharing her jungle territory or destroying the castle she was building. She longed for peacefulness.
The little girls didn't mind so much going to Grandma's house, in fact, they thought it was really alright. Grandma had air-conditioning and a house-keeper, which the wolves did not. Grandma also had a never-ending cache of sweet snacks and a jungle in her basement. The jungle basement was really amazing. There were tropical houseplants that had gone wild down there. They grew out of their pots, rooted into the carpet and crawled towards the bay window. They dipped and stretched, growing into nearly impossible shapes! The little girls liked to play in the basement jungle, but often territorial disputes would disrupt between them.
Grandma didn't seem to mind the yelling all that much, and for the most part, she stayed upstairs and watched soap operas. The little girls would climb the steep stairs once in a while and ask Grandma to settle a tiff for them. Grandma wasn't really much of a mediator, so often sugary snacks were given and they were sent back to the jungle, or separated for a short bit of time. Grandma seldom noticed if they left their time out spot and returned to the jungle basement, she was busy talking to the t.v.
The little girls stayed with Grandma through the summer days until the wolves deemed Leave Me Alone old enough to be responsible for her younger two sisters... she really wasn't all that old. The wolves just mostly didn't like the little girls staying with Grandma. Once her babysitting duties started, Leave Me Alone avoided the other two by going to the woods or reading a book in her room with the door shut and locked. Shut Up would tie up I Want in the wolves' basement and beat on her like the bad babysitter used to do... well, maybe not as much as the bad babysitter. Nintendo seemed to be the only thing that kept Shut Up from stirring up things with the other two.
I apologize to Shut Up if this story paints her as a harsh character. She really was different than Leave Me Alone, and I imagine that those fundamental differences were the roots of some of the mutual misunderstandings they had of one another. I Want talked a lot on the phone when she got older, which Leave Me Alone found somewhat irritating, but no one was calling to talk to Leave Me Alone anyway, so I am not sure why it bothered her so.
The little girls grew up and moved away from each other and I think they are happier. They do like to visit one another from time to time.
The End.
