Читать книгу Miss Boo Is Sixteen - Margaret Lee Runbeck - Страница 12

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The people in my house always think if you’re talking on the telephone it is their chance to engage your other ear, without your being able to talk back.

Last night I was having a protracted telephone conversation, so Boo came in and sat on the floor in the direct line of my vision.

“Who’re you talking to?”

I mouthed, “Relations.”

She said, “We had a talk about relations in our Good Citizenship Club.”

I let my eyebrows go up in an accent circonflexe to indicate interest.

“Premarital relations,” she said. “Comes from the Latin. ‘Pre’ is a prefix meaning before ... so this was about relations before marriage. Dr. Hunt is against ’em.”

I became more circumflex, and let my free hand scuffle over the mouthpiece, so our kinfolks wouldn’t hear anything to upset them.

“Seems funny to me,” Boo said. “I assume the premarital relations are the ones you had before you acquired in-laws. Why should Dr. Hunt think in-laws are more desirable than the relations you were born with? Very puzzling.”

“Don’t puzzle,” I said. “I’ll explain it to you later.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow, God willing.”