True Fright

Yesterday my daughter pointed out, “Mommy’s black, you’re white, and I’m tayen.”

“What,” I asked, “are you?”

“Tayen,” she replied.

“What is tayen?” I further inquired.

“Tayen is a color between black and white. Like brown but not as brown,” she said.

A shock of fright went through my body like a bucket of ice water thrown over me as I realized that she was saying “tan”, but had drawn it out into two syllables with a long a. I should have seen this coming. I should have been better prepared. Some days ago we were discussing the flavor of her vitamin gumballs, and I asked her if the red one was cinnamon or raspberry or what, and she told me that it was “chair-y”

Until she went to preschool she had a West African accent. Now she goes to school with kids whose parents are military and originally came from Alabama and Georgia and more remote parts of the South. Her teachers don’t have pronounced drawls, but they do have Virginia country accents.

My sweet, darling little girl is starting to talk like a rebel. Either I have to go running home or get used to it.

I don’t know. I just don’t know.