When Becky Was Born
Becky's mum talks so much that Becky had already learned to talk quite well by the time she was born, which was less than a year before the start of this millennium. She must have taught herself in the womb. We're guessing she managed it because of the amount her mum talks, but we can't be entirely sure. There might have been a bit more to it. But mere seconds after she came out of her mother, she said, "That journey was the worst experience of my life! Now what's this scary place I've been rudely pushed out into?"
Becky's mum was shocked to hear her talk, and so were the nurses and doctors. It was all the more remarkable because she'd arrived three weeks before she was due. Every one of them thought they must be going mad. But mother-love must have been stronger than the shock, because Becky's mum picked her up and gave her a cuddle. Becky said, "That's better. But what's this 'milk' stuff I've heard you raving about, saying you'll give me some? Let's try it."
Her mum couldn't believe what she was hearing. But she was young and inexperienced, and wondered if she'd missed out on a bit of education at school where the other kids learned that babies can sometimes talk straight from the womb. She'd never known it to happen before. Certainly her little brother hadn't done that; he hadn't talked till well after his first birthday. But she thought perhaps boys were just a bit slower than girls. But then she asked a nurse, who said she'd never known a baby talk that soon either, and that it was unnatural.
Becky's mum, possibly still in a drugged haze from the pain-killing medication she'd been given while she was giving birth, thought a name that meant 'Unnatural' would be appropriate for her new daughter in that case, but she couldn't think of a name that meant that, so she settled for calling her Rebecca instead, a name that apparently has something to do with a tendency to tie knots in bits of string. Later she was glad she'd called her that, since she realised a name that meant 'unnatural' sounded uncomplimentary.
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When Becky's mum took her out of the hospital, Becky was scared. She'd been used to living in a tightly enclosed warm dark little space in her mum, and now she felt lost in this totally different environment. Neither her English nor her understanding of the world had developed enough by then for her to have understood what her mum and the nurses had been talking about when they'd said she'd be going home soon. As her mum walked outside the hospital with her in her arms, Becky said in alarm, "Mum, what the heck is going on here?"
Becky's mum was startled; she didn't use language like 'heck'. She wondered where Becky could have learned it from. She thought it must have been either her eldest sister or one of her brothers, who must have been talking very loudly one day before Becky was born.
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As Becky looked around her in the coming days, she saw people walking around, and thought, "I'd love to be able to do that!" So she asked her mum to teach her.
Her mum said, "I think you're too young to walk; you can't even hold your head up by yourself yet. Your muscles aren't strong enough. I'll teach you when you're ready."
Becky wasn't sure what her mum was saying, but thought it must have something to do with not being strong; and though she didn't like to hear it, because there were two strong things she had already developed - her will and her pride in her abilities, - she had to concede that her mum had a point. So she said, "OK, just teach me to walk a few steps holding onto you for support."
Her mum tried, holding her up, shuffling very slowly around the floor on her bottom so she could easily reach her, trying hard not to jerk her off balance as she moved. Between them, they actually succeeded after a while to enable Becky to walk a few tiny slow steps. Then Becky insisted they try and go further; so they did. Becky insisted and insisted all day, so they carried on practising, till her mum thought she could do with a break from such persistent insistence. But still, by the end of the day, Becky was managing to hobble gradually around the room on her little legs, with her mum carefully holding her up for support. Her mum was very proud of what Becky had achieved, and praised her for her progress.
Becky had found it tiring though after a while, so she decided it would be best to stop insisting on walking from then on, and just lie back and let her mum do all the work of getting her around and fetching and carrying for her till her muscles were stronger.
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Becky's English was far from perfect; after all, how could it have been very good when so many of the words people use are for things she'd never seen in her life. Besides, she hadn't heard the words all that clearly in the womb, what with all the gurgling going on in her mum's stomach and the sound of her heart beating. She'd had to work things out as best she could. But there were some early misunderstandings after her mum brought her home from hospital.
For instance, when she was still in her mum's womb, she'd always noticed that the gurgling sounds coming from her mum's stomach increased after she said words like 'dinner', and she assumed that after people said those words, they must have to say the following words making that sound, because she didn't realise they were only involuntary stomach rumblings brought on by a bit of hunger, not at all made deliberately. So sometimes in the few weeks after her mum brought her home, after she used the word 'dinner' herself, Becky tried to imitate those noises as best she could. Her mum laughed. Becky didn't understand why. Soon though, she noticed that her mum didn't make any noises like that after all - at least none that were audible from outside her - after she said words like 'dinner', so she thought the noises must just be private noises, only audible to people on the inside; and she stopped trying to imitate them.
After a while, Becky got used to her new world, and began to enjoy it sometimes.
