Tommy becomes Pippi's boss and what happens next

All little boys who ever heard of Pippi adore and admire her. She can lift a horse, lives on her own, her imagination knows no limits and she’s so deliciously disobedient. Controversial, provocative, genuine. Different. Accepting no roles the society tries to ascribe to her. Not afraid of anything and anyone. Generous. Kind-hearted and loving. Hilarious.

Those boys grow up and they meet someone who reminds them of Pippi. Someone who refuses to stay at home and make home-making her only job. They meet this independent spirit, and, instead of adoring and admiring her, they are afraid. And when people are afraid, what they do is try to control the object of their fear.

For her own good they will try to make Pippi understand that it’s in her interest to fit in. Be polite. Follow the rules, not challenge them. Bear children, iron shirts, cook meals. Accept to earn less than Tommy. Talk about fashion with Annika. “ I mean, Pippi, be reasonable:  time goes by, and we have a family to support. You just need to settle down.”

All little girls who ever heard of Pippi want to become like her. Independent and courageous. Questioning the status quo. They are all smiles when they hear this conversation between Pippi and the old rich Miss Rosenbloom:

“’Pay attention girl,’ she said at last. ‘I want you to tell me how you spell “seasick”.’
‘With the greatest of pleasure,’ said Pippi. ‘S-e-e-s-i-k.’
Miss Rosenbloom smiled sarcastically.
‘Oh’, she said, ‘the spelling book has different ideas’.
‘It’s jolly lucky, then, that you asked me how I spell it’, said Pippi. ‘S-e-e-s-i-k’, that’s the ways I’ve always spelt it and it never did me any harm’. (…)
‘Make a note of it,’ said Miss Rosenbloom to the secretaries. Her mouth was set in a thin line.
‘Yes, do,’ said Pippi. ‘Take down this extra good spelling, and make sure it’s put into the spelling book as soon as possible.’
‘Well now, my girl,’ said Miss Rosenbloom. ‘Tell me this. When did Charles I die?’
‘Oh, dear me!’ exclaimed Pippi. ‘Is he dead now? It makes you so sad to think of how many people pop off nowadays. And I’m quite sure it need never have happened if only he’d changed his shoes when they got wet.’’ (quote after Google Books, http://books.google.nl/books?id=hf8O0X5GieIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=rosembloom&f=false)

Both Tommy and Annika were so proud of her on that day! How she’d outwitted the old spinster, rewarding the children who were dismissed by Miss Rosenbloom for their cluelessness.

Grown-up Pippi and Tommy, who has in the meantime become her boss (and not the other way round: I suspect it's due to Tommy's wearing his hair neatly combed to one side from his early years. What you have on your head, will sooner or later get into it), and has obviously forgotten all admiration he had for Pippi when they were young, will have quite a different  conversation instead:

‘Pay attention, Miss Langstrumpf,’ he said at last. ‘I want you to tell me how you’ve come up with 2 million instead of 2 thousand, and how we’re going to make sure it’s not going to happen again.’
‘With the greatest of pleasure’, said Pippi. ‘I thought: it’s Christmas, people deserve some good news. 2 million would make them much happier than 2 thousand, so I added a few more zeros. Zero is nothing, so you might also say I added nothing. Nothing happened, really. But the sales force was very content with their results, so I think we may conclude that it was great success with little effort’.
‘Only these were not their results’ Mr. Settergren exclaimed. ‘If the controller hadn’t noticed that, we would have had to pay them all extremely high bonuses. Do you at all realise what you’ve done?’
‘Nothing. As I said previously, nothing. I added a few nothings to the amount. To make them happy for Christmas’
‘And make the company bankrupt!’ – he was in total rage by now. – ‘Have you had maths at all?’
‘Yes, I remember having some. Many even. One day, I open my closet, and what I see is a whole swarm of moths flying out. They were eating up my wardrobe, can you imagine? Nasty bastards.’
‘Mind your language, Miss Langstrumpf. ‘Next time I hear a word like this from your mouth, and you’re fired! I mean it! Now I really mean it, it’s been enough!’

They say the books children love in childhood will form them as adults. Sadly, in most cases this is only wishful thinking.  Don't get me wrong - what I'm supporting here is not creative accounting, but sheer sense of humour! But tall Tommies have short memories.