"I'm
sorry," she said, as soon as the five of them were in the arboretum and
the doors had slid closed behind them.
"You
shouldn't be. They were really stupid. And mean," Jayna said. She jammed
her fists into her hips and moved back a couple steps. "They shouldn't
tell lies about our ship like that!"
"What's
a nanny ship?" Kati asked. "My brother was talking with some of his
friends and they said other people called us a nanny ship, but he wouldn't tell
me what it meant. Is it a bad word?"
"That's
not right." Dafna settled down on a bench just inside the doorway of the
arboretum. Her little face wrinkled up with deep thought. "I know what a nanny
is. It's a person who takes care of little children. So that's not a bad thing,
is it?"
"Of course not." E'bett settled down on the bench next to Dafna and gestured for the other three girls to sit with them. "I agree, we could have handled that unpleasant little encounter better. On the other hand, I suppose it's a good learning experience for you, to have encountered those … well, I suppose the kindest label is to call them indiferps."
She wrinkled up her nose at the girls when all four giggled at her use of the word. E'bett usually didn't use any slang words or mild cusses. She always told them that if they couldn't think of appropriate, civilized words to express their feelings at the moment, then they needed to read and expand their vocabularies. Perhaps the momentary lapse in thinking was a good sign they shouldn't react at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment