February 02, 2004

A Dialect on Ghetto Etymology.

Overheard on the subway the other morning.

Speakers:

Girl Number One: Blue denim jacket, short, carefully curled brown hair with gold streaks. Medium sized, trapezoid- shaped, punched-gold earrings. Pale cafe au lait skin; could have been Latina, could have been black, could have been just about anything.

Girl Number Two: Short, skinny, a little chickenlegged. Tight dark jeans, bright white high-tops, red sweatshirt with a poofy Michelin-man-style vest over it. Hair similar color and color job, but much longer, with a spiral curl frozen in mousse. Pulled back under a bandana. Gold hoop earrings, braces. Same cafe au lait coloring as Girl One; they could be cousins.

Both look about fifteen. Conversation below to be rendered in breathless giggles, punctuated by screeching brakes of L train at regular intervals.

Girl Number Two accidentally stumbles into another passenger.

Girl Two: My bad.

Anonymous passenger nods.

Girl One: You shouldn't say that shit. That's ghetto talk. You should say, "I'm sorry."

Girl Two: You think?

Girl One: Damn, girl...

Train screeches

Girl Two:...body talks like that any more. It's almost weird.

Girl One: Y'know, that's true, one time ...train pulls into station, announcements and general babble... and so my Moms says to me, you need to tell that man you're sorry. And I turn to him and go, "My bad."


Girl Two laughs. The continue to converse, but the noise of the train covers their conversation, until...

Girl Two: ...and so she found out about him and that girl, and goes up to him and starts screaming at him, and he stands there like, "My bad, baby, my bad."

Girl One and Girl Two dissolve in giggles.

End scene.

Posted by Diablevert at February 2, 2004 02:02 PM
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