by Ganelle Davis

Created on: December 17, 2009

 At the age of only eight years old, Darlene seemed most  comfortable, in the midst of adult conversation. Most words, she did not have, full command of, but she continued to listen intently, relying on the signals found in body language.  Darlene's  emotional intelligence was way beyond her years. She was able to decipher  the gestures, the tone of the voice, lips tightening into a smirk,the emphasis of a raised eyebrow.   Deciphering the words and what they meant was her biggest challenge.  Darlene, had always enjoyed this challenge and looked upon it as a clever game of skill and aptitude.

Darlene heard the word "bastard " spoken by her aunt.  Intuitively, she understood this word was bad,  She had noticed a different tone as the word appeared to escape from her aunt's lips in a hiss. Immediately her aunt avoided eye contact with her, and stood up from the table. Darlene's grandmother was adept at changing the topic at a moments notice. Quickly she focused the attention on Darlene's plate sitting in front of her. "I'm certain you have finished your meal, because it is cold now anyway",she said. The feeling Darlene got from this exchange, let her know,her grandmother dd not approve of that word being used.

An uncomfortable silence permeated the room as they both stopped talking altogether. It was o.k., she thought to herself.  She was certain that word started with a  "B".  She would have some time later to sound it out and look it up in the dictionary,her grandfather had given her.There were many times, she was admonished to "stay out my mouth", which meant to stop being so intrigued and listening to other people's conversation.  Darlene's grandmother had referred to it as " grown folks chat."  Darlene did admit to herself, it seemed a lot more interesting than any other conversation.

in the late fall afternoon, it was still daylight outside and perhaps time to play a game of  tether ball with her friend Grace down the block. Darlene, decided she would ask to go down the block, out of earshot of her aunt, who always seemed to meddle in everything. Plus , she was trying to save herself from embarrassment if the answer was no.

Grace was a few years older than Darlene and it appeared ,she knew of all the bad words and even knew what they meant.  she had planned to repeat this word to Grace, so that they might figure out the meaning together. Grace was an expressive, large girl

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