conversations

Remember this guy?

It was my job to pick him up from his mom's other workplace today and drop him off at day camp.

File that under #youhadONEjob ...

I forgot. Well, I remembered earlier, but then I forgot at the time I needed to remember, so I maaaaay have been flying at top speed through the city to go and get him a leeeeeeetle bit later than I was supposed to.

Arrived, his mom piled him into the car, and that's when he announced that the times for today's day camp had changed ... "Remember, Mom...?"

None of us were certain. So I took him over, and sure enough - we had an hour to spare. We went and got a bagel.

And that's when THIS stream of consciousness poured forth.

"Have you ever had perogies? I've never had perogies."

"Yeah, they're great.
OK, so you can choose one of these.
A muffin ... or a bagel ... or a croissant ... not a giant cinnamon bun."

"No, that's HUUUUUUUGE. That's way too big for me. I don't want that. ... and I don't want THAT ... and I don't want THAT ...."

"How about you tell me what you DO want?"

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... that. With cream cheese. Not toasted."

So we got his bagel and my muffin and coffee, and after a few bites he started up again.

"Is your coffee black?"

"Yes"

"That's what Mom gets. Black coffee. .... Why don't any of those pots SAY 'black coffee'?"

"Oh ... because all coffee is black until you put cream in it."

"Oh. Mom orders black coffee and then puts cream in."

"Hmm ... maybe she orders a dark roast? Not black?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Yeah ... this one is a dark roast. That's kind of a flavour. It's called French Mocha, but it's about the same."

"Yeah. But it's not really the same, like ... the words aren't really the same at all."

" ... right."

"What's THAT machine, over there?"

"A coffee roaster. It gets hot, and then roasts the coffee beans so you can grind them up for coffee."

His eyes got large.

"Do they tell everyone to leave the store when it gets hot, because it's sooooo hot it wouldn't be safe for anyone in the store?"

"Uh ... no ..."

"Oh."

When the sesame seeds fell off his bagel, he figured they would grow, because they're seeds, after all. Then he thought about it and realized that actually, they wouldn't, because there's a tile floor, BUT if HOT LAVA came in, it would BURN UP the whole floor and there would be dirt everywhere, and then the seeds would grow.

I suggested that the hot lava might harden over the dirt, but he said no, because "it's pretty cool in here". If it was outside where it's hot, then yes. But not where there's air conditioning.

And then he said,

"You know that guy ... um  ... that man ... you know that man? with the ... um ... with the white hair?"

He gestured, to demonstrate hair. I waited for more information.

"You know, that guy ... with glasses ... no wait, he doesn't have glasses ... he has white hair ..." (another gesture)

"oh, and he plays the bongoes at church ... do you know him?"

"yep"

"he came and watched my baseball game last night - Mom told him I had a game"

Which I thought was pretty cool. However, when I checked in with the guy I thought he meant, that guy didn't know anything about it. So I'm not sure who the guy with the glasses/no glasses was.

Finished our snack, got back in the car, I dropped him at day camp, and went back to work.

With an extra smile.

And a black coffee.