“All right, then,” said Rebekah. “What’s the sound of the first letter in the list?”

Mother looked down at the letters in the dirt. “How should I know which one is first?”

“It begins on the right side of the top row.”

“I don’t know what sound it makes.”

“But I’ve told you.”

“But it takes time.”

“No, Mother. It doesn’t take time, it takes practice, and every time I try to get you to practice you start talking about something else and the lesson stops. At this rate, you will learn to read sometime after I bring my own grandchildren to come visit their ancient great-grandmother.”

Mother looked at her in consternation and then laughed. “Do you talk like this with everyone?”

“No,” said Rebekah. “In fact, I don’t talk like this with anyone. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I get so impatient.”

“Neither do I.”

“No, that wasn’t true. I understand exactly why I get so impatient. I’m trying to do what you asked me to do, and you won’t let me do it.”

“And I’m trying to use this time alone with you to get to know you, to chat with you, and you insist on repeating these same things over and over again. Ah ah ah ah ah. Buh buh buh buh buh. Duh duh duh duh duh.”

Mother’s mockery of the letter-sounds was too funny, and Rebekah burst out laughing. Mother laughed, too.

“Sit down,” Mother said. “I’m going to be here a long time. I’m not going to be able to memorize this whole list the first day. It’s you I want to memorize. You that I want to get to know.”

Rebekah sighed and sat down. “But don’t you see, Mother? This is who I am. I’m the person who gets the job done. I plan it out, I work hard, and I don’t let anything distract me until I’ve accomplished it. So in your effort to find out who I am, you are not letting me be who I am.”

“You don’t sit and gossip with the women?”

“They’re women, Mother. I’m a girl. I’m also the master’s daughter. So they don’t sit and chat with me. They either consult me respectfully about the work, or if they feel at ease with me, they tease me like a girl. Or give me lectures about things I’ll need to know.”

“But that is gossip.”

“Mother, you came into this camp as a bride. I came into it as a baby. They’ll always see me as a baby. They’ll always see you as a woman.”

“In other words, you don’t even know how to chat with me.”

“I didn’t know that’s what you were doing. I thought you were bored with the lessons.”