Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 84.1: 1995, Ruiz

Chapter 84.1: 1995, Ruiz

"Day-ee. Pree-ee."

"They are, aren't they? I thought they looked so cheerful. They were on sale, too. We were lucky."

"Sale nah ma-err."

"No, I guess not. But what's better than half price daisies?"

"Yeh."

Cha Cha started giggling in the kitchen and Georgina started laughing, too. I started to smile, despite my dilemma weighing on my brain all the way in the living room.

"I'll put them in water. Do you want the metal vase or the green?"

"Geen."

"Good choice. That will bring out their yellow centers. You always have a good eye."

"Ah, no."

They burst into giggles again, like two little girls talking about boys. I found myself grinning and I hadn't meant to. They were just so cheerful despite their own struggles. Just like the daisies.

"I'm making pork chops for dinner. Should be around six. Its about four now, so I'm going to start cooking at five. Is that okay? Do you need a snack? I've got some cereal. Or you could have ice cream if you really want. I think I've got some strawberry ice cream in the back of the freezer." 

I heard the freezer already opening with a whoosh. 

"No. No, sack. Ne-er."

"Oh, okay." 

It closed again. No strawberry ice cream. I sighed on the couch, laid on my stomach and put my face into one of the more fluffy throw pillows. The fur of it was tickling my nose but I didn't mind. 

Somehow, Miss Cha Cha seemed to be understanding every word Georgina was saying, like magic. How was she doing that? I longed to be able to do the same. Somehow.

"Well, since we have time. Do you want to work on those exercises that the speech therapist gave you? She said to work on them every day. Little things. She said if you do it, then you could be speaking better. Do you want to? I'll help you. I have nothing to do right now, so you aren't taking me away from anything."

This was different. My eyes traveled to the left, but all I saw was couch. Of course. 

"Yeh. We ca er."

"We what?"

"We ca...er..."

"Its okay, Georgina..."

"We ca oo ih."

"Oh! Oh, 'we can do it.' I see. Si."

"Yeh."

This sounded brighter. I let my closed eyes sink into the pillow, my nose still breathing in fluff. Relaxing, just listening to them going on.

"She said she wanted you to work on saying consonants. Its really what you struggle with most... But don't be embarrassed. Really, don't be embarrassed. I have problems sometimes, too. But you know that. There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

She herself had said the word consonants as "con-sta-nents" and the word embarrassed as "am-ber-ressed". I found that very cute, how she was trying to explain about mispronouncing things while mispronouncing things. I wished I could tell her that, but I kept my mouth shut, just listening.

"So, she gave me this exercise for you. She said it was really important. Its just repeating some words, not too hard. And don't worry if you can't get them. We're working on them. There's no pressure. Work at your own pace. I won't get mad. That's one of the words, actually. Mad."