[ WP ] You 're certain that someone 's letting you in on a big secret . You are being given small connected pieces of information by different people , everyday .

*Life. * 
 
 This was the first clue I got when I was just 7. I asked my mother the following: `` Mom, where do babies come from?'' She was driving at the time and I noticed her lip curl in the corner as it always did when she was wonderingly happy about something. 
 
 `` Well,'' she began. `` Babies come from other people who are alive,'' she said glancing quickly toward me, her lip still curled. I thought about it for a moment. 
 
 `` What's alive?'' I asked. 
 
 `` Life-'' she paused. Her chin perked upward toward the windshield which pulled my eyes forward as well. `` Is everything you see in front of you.'' I watched as the trees whisked by in orange and green blurs. 
 
 We continued to have these deeply philosophical discussions - and I continued to engage them - as best as a 7 year old could. But I'm 77 years old now and I still think about those conversations when cars pass me on the road to this day. 
 
 You see, a gentlemen by the name of Charles S was late to work one of those brisk mornings. He had blurted something vile out the crack of his darkened window as he sped past. I knew it was not a nice thing to say because my mother's usual slight smile that brightened my day each day was replaced with a furrow in her brow. Her unusual silence gave me enough time to ask. And sometimes I wish I had n't. 
 
 I thought about the word, *Bitch. * 
 
 `` Mom?'' I hesitated. I knew she knew what I was going to ask. Her eyes still pressed toward to the glass. `` What's a.. bitch?'' The deep groove in her forehead still crumpled. 
 
 I felt embarrassed for asking and I bathed in that embarrassment for a while, unknowing if she wished it so. After a long silence she finally spoke. `` It's what people say when they have lost their way.'' 
 
 I kept silent for the rest of that ride. 
 
 Our usual conversations of life continued well until my teenage years. At thirty five I moved away, but still spoke to my mother through Skype or Phone - though less and less frequently. She passed away blissfully in her sleep 5 years ago, and I always remembered what the doctor told me over the phone as I was at the airport ready to visit for the holidays. 
 
 *Died. * 
 
 3 people and 3 words let me in on the ultimate secret. *Life's* a *bitch. * Then you *die. *
