"Do you love me as much as your mother loved you?"
"Yes. And as much as your mother loved you."
"You'd have to ask her, but you can't because she's dead." Karen left the room without another word.
In the days and weeks that followed, Karen seemed almost obsessed with her new found concept of love and trust. You could tell it in her questions and her subtle little tests. She would do little out-of-character things, tell a pointless fib, just to test my reaction. It was a game I didn't enjoy playing but I'd not come up with a strategy for dealing with it until one presented itself after a particularly tense meal when no one liked a roast lamb I'd prepared.
Paul returned from the windy city with presents for all and an adoring disposition that gave credence to his love of hearth and home. I dismissed his questions about Karen's language slip with a promise we had had it out and I told him I felt sure she was sufficiently remorseful. That night, tucked comfortably beneath the covers, I tickled him and asked, "Hey big guy, do you want to hump?"
He laughed and kissed me. "Hump? Where did you learn that new word?"
"Guess."
"Our daughter? Karen knows what hump means? Where did she hear that?"
"From Mary Ellen Murphy, the dean-mistress of post childhood education."
"She actually knows about that stuff?"
"Yes. It's why we close the bedroom door. Humping is sometimes used to make babies." I smiled, and tickled him in the dark. "Mary Ellen's mother and her live-in boyfriend make lots of noise doing it. It's a good thing we're quiet humpers."
"It's a good thing our kids are sound sleepers! I suppose Karen will tell Timmy all about it too, whatever she knows."
"I'm sure she'll tell Timmy, if he cares enough to listen. But what's the harm? 'Inquiring minds want to know!' Karen's a smart girl. I'm sure she has some idea where babies come from. I'm not sure she's completely clear on how they get there in the first place but I plan to work on instructing her."
"If she knows about 'humping' she must have a very pretty idea! God, she's only twelve years old, Sarah Jeanne! I was a teenager before I knew about sex! She's still a child!"
"She's a woman, Paul. You can't stop her body from changing and her breasts from growing!"
"God, that's scary!"
"Let's face it. She's at a difficult age in her life. Everything is new and confusing. She needs a sounding board for all the chaos of her new world. I plan to fill that function. I'm taking on the chore of a sex education teacher. I'm just not clear on the details of my Humping 101 curriculum."