Dayna's Gift

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"If I tell you this stuff, you've got to promise me you won't decide I'm crazy, okay?  Or that my kid is.  'Cause she's not.  Well, maybe the jury's still out on my sanity." LeAnne smiled weakly.

“Yeah, we’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, Sweetie, but do go on.”  Nettie could hardly contain her curiosity, and Darce settled herself comfortably for a good story.

LeAnne eyed each woman nervously, then proceeded softly.

“Don’t misunderstand me, Dayna’s a good kid.  I don’t mean she spied on anyone.  the things she would say out loud weren’t meant to harm or tease.  She thought she was helping, I’m sure.  But they were alarming for others in that it was often regarding things she shouldn’t have known.”  LeAnne swallowed hard, looking from one puzzled face to the other.  “What I mean is, nobody would’ve known!  And how she knew these things is beyond me, but it was pretty unsettling to others.  Especially Dayna’s teachers.”

Nettie scrutinized LeAnne for a few moments, squinting as though it would bring her words into sharper focus.  Darce’s face only registered blank curiosity.

LeAnne went for broke.  “For instance, one day when she was in second grade, all the kids were practicing spelling words, I think, and the class was quietly working on their papers.  Suddenly, Dayna looked at the little girl in a nearby desk and said aloud, ‘Your dad wants you to look in the big pipe under the driveway.  Buddy Boo is there.’  The little girl burst into tears and ran from the room.”

“I don’t get it,” Darce said, “why was that so upsetting?”

LeAnne looked down at her lap before she went on, “The little girl’s dad had died the previous summer.  Buddy Boo was a stuffed dog the little girl had lost about the time of his death.”

All three women remained silent for a few minutes.  LeAnne feared her companions were busy revising their opinions of her.  She shouldn’t have brought this up, should've kept her mouth shut.  She looked from one face to the other, sadly.

Nettie finally cleared her throat, loudly, and fixed LeAnne in a hard gaze.  "My Dear, your daughter isn't peculiar.  She's gifted."