And I'll bet you can guess why I asked the question. It's because, as you are certainly aware by now, that she seems to never be rattled by any circumstance. Concerned, might be the word to describe her most excited reaction. Slightly worried on rare occasions, but never, never does she jump the rails.
She didn't answer right away but seemed to be searching the data banks for salient memories.
"I suppose I did when I was a small girl", she said.
"Did you wear knickers when you were small?" I said.
"You're silly," she said. "You didn't literally mean knickers when you asked the question and you know it," she said. "I do remember being upset that I never got anything to go in my cereal other than bananas. That's why I never eat them today. I prefer peaches and blueberries."
"I wore knickers as a child," I said.
"When you were a baby you mean? she said.
"I also wore short pants and sandals," I said.
"So?" she said.
"I didn't like them," I said, and when I say I didn't like them, I mean that I hated them."
"Why?" she said.
"Because big boys didn't wear shorts. Shorts were for girls, was my opinion."
"Why didn't you like sandals?"
"Because pebbles got in them, underneath the arch of my foot, and that hurt. Added to the physical pain was the embarrassment of sitting down and inserting a finger between foot and sandal to extricate the pebble. The word is extricate, isn't it.
"The word is extricate," she said, "but I wonder why you use it. Why not withdraw, free, clear, wriggle out? But never mind that now. Why was it embarrassing to remove the pebble?"
"Because it drew attention to the shorts and knobby knees," I said.
"Yes, well I feel your pain but if that's the biggest problem you had, then life in Shady Grove must have been pretty gentle on the mind," she said.
"Ah," I said, "you may think so but you haven't heard about the socks that didn't fit properly. And if that doesn't change your mind about my childhood, then wait until I tell you about being forced to eat pine needles on the school playground."
"I've heard that one," she said. "And it's disgusting. Any why is it called a monkey's paw anyway?"
The last remark got past me. I assume it was meant to be a diversionary tactic and so decided to give it a miss. I include it here only because it may have some meaning for you. If you recognize it, please leave a comment below and clue me in.
I forged ahead with the theme, the nucleus, the heart of the matter as I saw it.
"That pine needle moment was the single most defining moment in my young life," I said.
"Fierce Qigong," she said.
"Rem acu tetigisti," I said.
"Yes," she said, "a pine needle."