lesson 3: be careful who you proposition-or-little birds shouldn't eat cow

She stretches and sighs, looking out the window a little listlessly. "I'm not sure what I learned when I was three. Hmm. The only thing that comes to mind is, be cautious who you proposition."

"Pardon? You were three. What are you talking about?"

"Well," she explains, blushing a little, "first it was my brother's best friend. My brother is 9 years older than me, and I told his best friend that I thought he was cute and that we should get married when we'd grown up."

"Ah. Interesting."

"Yeah. He actually blushed. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with a three year old with such long term plans." She looks kind of embarrassed. "I shouldn't have brought this up. Forget I ever said anything."

"No no. You won't get away with it that easily. I need to hear about the second time."

"Erm. Well. The second was the little boy across the street. Corky. He was over playing and we were in my closet..."

"Your closet?"

"Yeah. We were playing house."

"House?"

"No! Not what you're thinking. I'm not telling you this story if you're going to make fun of me."

"Well you're setting yourself up for it missy. Come on. Give me the details."

"I just told him that we should kiss like they do in the movies. He was so horrified that he ran home and never played with me again."

"So you've learned something from this?"

She turns an even deeper shade of red and won't meet my eyes.

"Hey!" she says. "I have a better story! A little robin fell out of its nest and we fed it hamburger meat and kept in the garage under a lamp, but it died anyway. That's a better story. That's the one we should tell." She is insistent now.

"What did you learn from that?"

"Little birds shouldn't eat cow?" she attempts.

"Uh, ya. Right."