I had settled down in my normal seat in the bar. Jess and Lauren came by to say Hi and ask, “The normal?” I nodded absent-mindedly, then opened the book I was reading. The goal was to get a couple of chapters under the belt over a glass of wine. Sharmila is in New York, so I had no travel planning to do, I guess.

Now, I mentioned that I was a bit absent-minded while responding to Jess and Lauren. And that is because I saw a very young kid going around and cleaning up the place. You know, putting things back in their place and that sort of thing. I had never seen the kid before.

“Who is he?” I asked Jess.
“Nolan. He is my younger son.”
“Oh! What is he doing – cleaning up the place?”
“Oh! He wants to be a help around. He loves it.”

He must have. Because, right at that moment, he showed up and asked, “Mom, what else can I do?”

Well, I introduced myself and found out that Nolan is a fourth-grader and that his favorite subject is Math. My idea of reading the book was defenestrated almost immediately. For the next hour or so, I taught him a few tricks rooted in math (like guessing your number and all), and then he would go try them on his mom and Lauren and impress them!

Eventually, it was time for me to go. It was getting late. We took a picture and parted ways. I am hoping that I will not have to wait till he comes of drinking age before I see him in the bar again!