Exquisite had always been her favorite word, starting with the first...
Exquisite had always been her favorite word, starting with the first day she learned its meaning. She had been small and close to the ground, looking up at the giants of the world. Father always looked at Mother one way and she looked at him the other. He called her “ekwiddit” or something that sounded like that. She’d look at Mother for a response that gave clues for what “ekwiddit” meant but she would only dimple at Father and walk away. Ekwiddit meant something Mother did not like. She later rediscovered the word when a Boy who was well bred and gold-collared and chained with manners and courtesy left her letters at the back door. Exquisite, the Boy called her. Like a flower. She didn’t want to be like a flower though, they were choked out by weeds and strangled by appreciators. She stopped going out for the Boy’s letters and eventually the letters stopped coming in for her. She had a fighting urge inside her, a desire for more. She wanted power and class that couldn’t be bought by Father or Mother, bless their cold souls. She wanted to redefine that word and take it back, giving it back with shards of her definition inside.
