Hello! I am Stella, Queen of the Olde English Bulldogges, et cetera.
Me: Hello, what?
Stella: It means ‘and so forth and so on’.
Me: I know what it means. Where did you learn that?
Stella: The Picture Box had a bald man inside and he said it again and again. I liked the way he made it sound, so I claimed it. It is now mine.
Me: I think you must have seen Yul Brynner. He was an actor.
Stella: Well, he surely knew how to say ‘et cetera’. But that phrase is mine now.
Me: You can’t just claim a phrase that everybody uses…
Stella: Yes, I can. Mine. See! That simple.
Me: You can’t declare some common words to be yours…
Stella: Mine! Done!
Me: You can say it all you wish, but you can’t keep others from saying it.
Stella: Yes, I can!
Me: Why?
Stella: Because, you know…Queen. You have a short memory, Lady Human.
Me: Oh, Stella.
Stella: That’s my name. I claim that, too. Mine! Nobody else can be Stella.
Me: I believe that there are a lot of Stellas out there who would dispute that.
Stella: Dispute. Okay. That’s mine, too. Claimed! Done!
Me: Language is to be shared, not hoarded.
Stella: Not anymore. It’s mine, all mine. Except for some words that I don’t like. For example, the word “no”, the word “stop”, the word “down”, the word “enough”. There are others that I don’t favor, but I don’t remember all of them. For now, I am not claiming these. I am freezing them so that they cannot be used against me.
Me: I think this queen thing has gone to your head.
Stella: Being queen is not a thing. It is me. Who I am. After all, someone has to be in charge. And the humans don’t seem to be. Therefore, MINE!
Copyright 2016 H.J. Hill All Rights Reserved.
Bulldoggy 