THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL : THE DEFINITIVE EDITION ... - Fidele

Dear Kitty,
Everyone here is still very tense. Pim has nearly reached the bothng point; Mrs.
van D. is lying in bed with a cold, grumbling; Mr. van D. is growing pale without
his cigarettes; Dussel, who's having to give up many of his comforts, is carping
at everyone; etc., etc. We seem to have run out of luck lately. The toilet's
leaking, and the faucet's stuck. Thanks to our many connections, we'll soon be
able to get these repaired.
I'm occasionally sentimental, as you know, but from time to time I have reason to
be: when Peter and I are sitting close together on a hard wooden crate among the
junk and dust, our arms around each other's shoulders, Peter toying with a lock of
my hair; when the birds outside are trilling their songs, when the trees are in
bud, when the sun beckons and the sky is so blue--oh, that's when I wish for so
much!
All I see around me are dissatisfied and grumpy faces, all I hear are sighs and
stifled complaints. You'd think our lives had taken a sudden turn for the worse.
Honestly, things are only as bad as you make them. Here in the Annex no one even
bothers to set a good example. We each have to figure out how to get the better of
our own moods!
Every day you hear, "If only it were all over!"
Work, love, courage and hope,
Make me good and help me cope!
I really believe, Kit, that I'm a little nutty today, and I don't know why. My
writing's all mixed up, I'm jump- ing from one thing to another, and sometimes I
seriously doubt whether anyone will ever be interested in this drivel. They'll
probably call it "The Musings of an Ugly Duckling." My diaries certainly won't be
of much use to Mr. Bolkestein or Mr. Gerbrandy.* [* Gerrit Bolkestein was the
Minister of Education and Pieter Gerbrandy was the Prime Minister of the Dutch
government in exile in London. See Anne's letter of March 29, 1944.]
Yours, Anne M. Frank
SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1944
Dearest Kitty,
"There's just one bad thing after another. When will it all end?" You can sure say
that again. Guess what's happened now? Peter forgot to unbolt the front door. As a
result, Mr. Kugler and the warehouse employees couldn't get in. He went to Keg's,
smashed in our office kitchen window and got in that way. The windows in the Annex
were open, and the Keg people saw that too. What must they be thinking? And van
Maaren? Mr. Kugler's furious. We accuse him of not doing anything to reinforce the
doors, and then we do a stupid thing like this! Peter's extremely upset. At the
table, Mother said she felt more sorry for Peter than for anyone else, and he
nearly began to cry. We're equally to blame, since we usually ask him every day if
he's unbolted the door, and so does Mr. van Daan. Maybe I can go comfort him later
on. I want to help him so much!
Here are the latest news bulletins about life in the Secret Annex over the last
few weeks:
A week ago Saturday, Boche suddenly got sick. He sat quite still and started