“How much?”

I laughed.

“A lot.”

She seemed satisfied.

Honesty did not destroy childhood.

That lesson mattered deeply to me.

Adults often hide truth because we believe children cannot handle complexity.

What children cannot handle well is discovering later that everyone else knew something about their life except them.

PART 38 — WHY I NEVER REGRETTED LEARNING GERMAN

People sometimes asked if I regretted secretly learning the language.