Enough to Miss Christmas

"Is it my punishment to listen to that shit on the radio?"

I ignored the word. "It's a very pretty love song."

"It's stupid."

"Why do you say that?"

"She's singing that he's the only one in the world for her. That's ridiculous. There are millions and millions of people. If there was only one true love, no one would ever find their mate."

I chuckled at the logic of her thought process. "There may be millions but you're not looking at the whole picture."

"Are you going to try and convince me Dad is the only man in the world for you? That's just plain dumb!"

"I happen to love your father very much."

"Yeah, I heard you and Daddy humping last night."

I refused to be goaded. "Were we that loud?" She bit her lip, but didn't answer. "What do you know about humping?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

I was surprised her sense of modesty didn't preclude her from answering. "It's why you and dad keep your bedroom door closed. Humping is mostly used to make babies."

"That's certainly not the case with us; I've told you I can't have children and never could. Do you know why else people 'hump' ?"

"I don't want to have this discussion."

"You brought up the subject. Where did you hear about humping, as you call it?" I could guess.

Karen seemed irritated I wasn't shocked and wouldn't rise to the bait. She continued. "Mary Ellen's mother and her friend make lots of noise doing it. I'm glad you guys are quiet. It's disgusting, and I don't want to talk about it."

Nor did I, at least until I'd thought a lot more about the whole subject of sex education and my daughter.

"What do you think true love is?" I asked instead.

"I think It's a myth. There's no such thing."

"Sure there is."

"Like there's only one true love for you? There are seven billion people out there and I'm supposed to believe I'm going to find just one? Come on!"

"That's where you're wrong, Karen. Sure, there are millions of people in the world but true love is when you care about a person so much that you can't imagine being with anybody else; out of the millions and millions of other candidates." I turned from brushing my hair and looked at her. "That's how I feel about your father and that's how you'll feel about someone, someday."

"No way. True love is a joke but even if someone feels that way, that's only half of it."

"What do you mean?"

"How can they ever know how the person they love feels about them?"