Ashes

Emma told me that a boy on the bus today was mean to her. I asked what he said that was mean, and she jolted me with a guttural "Shut up!" I asked how she replied. "I told him to stop it and he said no, so I asked a teenager for help." (Emma thinks the older kids on the bus - a.k.a. "teenagers" - are grown ups because they are tall, even though I've explained otherwise to her several times.) I theorized that teenagers might not be the best people to ask for aid. Em insisted, "No Mommy, really, it's okay. The teenager told the boy she'd kick his ash if he was mean to me again." I then inquired as to whether or not Emma understood what the teenager meant by the phrase "kick his ash." Emma confessed, "Not really. But I know it's something really bad because the boy stopped being mean to me and got really scared about his ashes being kicked."