[ WP ] `` I know you are , but what am I ? '' results in a shocking revelation .

Carol left the playground changed. Her mother was worried that she had n't spoken on the drive home. She tensely glanced back at her through the rear view mirror, sitting there as she was, eyes glazed and angled at the window but not seeming to look anywhere in particular. `` Did you have fun, honey?'' 
 Carol made a noise in response with no particular effort towards an affirmative. 
 `` I saw you talking to that funny looking boy, what's his name?'' 
 At this, Carol blinked and looked in the mirror at her mother's reflection. Her stare caused her more worry than his silence. 
 She struggled to find the right words and said `` He's... he's... I'm... he's not....I mean, he knows what... I do n't know what he is.'' 
 Carol's voice grew heavy with emotion. They were almost home. Her mother's eyes continued to dart back at him. `` Is everything alright, dear? Did that boy say something to you?'' 
 She took a deep breath and looked down. Then, as their car pulled into their driveway, she asked `` What am I?'' To this her mother put the car into park and turned back to Carol, engine still running. `` What are you? You're Carol, of course. You're my wonderful little girl.'' She pinched her cheek and tried to look encouraging, but Carol was n't satisfied. 
 She said `` but... but I said to that boy, I said'ew, you're a boy' and he said, he said'I know you are but what am I?''' 
 Carol's mother's encouraging look faded a bit and she said `` Honey, that's just a silly insult, it did n't mean anything. Let's go inside, okay?'' 
 Carol began to protest, `` But, it made me feel weird. I feel like..I feel like I am a boy, but you said I'm a girl.'' She was trying to figure something out, it was clear, something subtly and deeply wrong with the phrase `` I know you are but what am I'' and how it applied to herself. Her mother was looking pale. Her voice was a bit quieter when she said `` Honey, let's just go inside and we can talk about it later.'' 
 Nervous breathing from the back seat trumped the quiet purr of the car engine. Carol looked extremely uncomfortable and felt a burning heat in her lungs. `` Mommy,'' she asked ``... am I a boy?'' 
 Her mother turned back to face the windshield and turned the car engine off. Silence filled the space like a vacuum of terror. Still facing away, her mother said in a stiffly controlled and tidy voice `` No, dear. You're my little girl.'' 
 `` Then... then why do I feel like a boy?'' Carol asked. 
 More silence. Tears were in Carol's eyes, and her mother's as well. 
 With a gentle and labored breath, Carol's mother said quietly `` You... are my little girl. The doctors made a little mistake and now you're my little girl.'' 
 `` What mistake?'' Carol asked. Her mother was sweating. 
 `` Well... when you're a baby you had a special surgery that... just went wrong, so you became a girl.'' 
 `` What surgery?'' Carol was crying. `` Why am I not a boy? Why am I a girl?'' 
 Her mother was crying as well, silently. `` Honey... let's go inside, okay?''
