Penelope didn’t like daisies or oranges or button-up shirts.
She
was seven and had her reasons.
Penelope
was right-handed by nature, something her mother referred to as “wrong-handed.”
Imagining she might please her mother, she painted her toenails purple with her
left hand. And her mother might have been pleased had she looked beyond the
purple smears on the floor.
How
could you figure adults, she wondered. Adults used words differently.
The
same words. Different meanings.
When
her mother said “I’ll think about it,” it meant “no.” “Soon” meant “now.” “A
little” meant “a lot.”
And
before Penelope painted her nails, her mother swore purple was her favorite
color and she would be happy if everything was purple.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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