The National Spelling Bee

When I was a little girl,I was a spelling champion.  Every day I went happily to school and studied with the sisters to improve my spelling for my competitive spelling bees.

After much time studying and beating other local schools, I learned that I was chosen by the school to represent it in the National Spelling Bee.  This was the greatest thing ever.

My father was overjoyed and talked about it for days, and had even taken the day off to drive me to the spelling bee.  While in the car, he gushed, "Yvette, this is a great honor for the family.  I came to this country and had to learn the language, and now my daughter is in the National Spelling Bee!  We called all our relatives to let them know.  This is an amazing thing and I am so proud of you!!

I was over the moon.  Once arriving at the venue, I was assigned a placard with my name on it and the name of my school. We were all up on a stage, and how it worked was that you waited your turn on the stage.  Once on the stage the moderator would call out a word to you, and you had to spell it back.  If you got it right they would ding a hotel bell, but if you got it wrong, there was a humiliating buzzer that went on entirely too long. (I suspect the moderator was a sadist).

Finally it got to be my turn, and I walked up confidently to the podium.  The moderator called out the following word....

LIAISON (pronounced lee-ay-zon)

I had not seen this word on any of the lists, nor did I, as a sixth grader, even know what it meant.  So I started:  L-E-A-Z-O-N .  BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Crestfallen, I walked with bowed head back to the car.  My father walked silently beside me.  However, once we got in the car, he exploded.

"LIAISON!!!!!LIAISON!!!! HOW COULD YOU MISS LIAISON??? I AM AN IMMIGRANT AND EVEN I KNOW HOW TO SPELL LIAISON!!!!YOU HAVE EMBARRASSED ME IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY!!!DIDN'T YOU EVEN STUDY AT ALL???"

I didn't respond, I just sat, feeling miserable the whole way home.  Once home, I shuffled up to my room and shut the door.

Moments later, I had a soft knock at the door.  It was my little brother, and he peeked his head in.

"HA! I HEARD YOU BLEW IT ON THE FIRST ROUND!!!!LIAISON!!!!THIS IS GREAT!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Before I knew it, I had grabbed a saddle shoe (we wore them to school) and had hurled it at my brother.

  Much to my surprise, it clocked him in the nose and he suddenly had a fountaining nosebleed as a result.

"MMMMOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!" he wailed.

I then proceeded to get the beating of my life.  And I was told I was going to go straight to hell if I ever hit my little brother like that again.

L-I-A-I-S-O-N.  It is my Rosebud.