My current favorite 6th grader was brought to see me this evening.
I wouldn’t say he likes to talk
Shy one this one
Usually I don’t make the choice to join them on the couch
But for hearing him
when his small 12 year-old face and voice register such uncertainty
There are responses to my standard interview openers about anxiety:
“Knowing that you’re going to be happy again”
and again, “that you’ll be safe”
that I may or may not have gotten had he been having to shout them at me
across the standard space
I keyed in quickly
that he is a baseball trivia genius in his own right
And I gave it my best:
“Who threw his 7th no-hitter in Nineteen Nine—“
“Who threw his 7th no-hitter in Nineteen Nine—“
“Nolan Ryan” he interrupted
with the nonchalant authority only a soft-spoken prepubescent can throw out
Impressed that I even tried
but more than that amused at how plainly stunned I was
Yet with a sudden brass that sincerely communicated:
‘That all ya’ got?’
Indeed it was
And that only because
Texas
He showed to the next
diligently inquiring if I’d studied up
I hadn’t
But he showed me his summer bucket list anyway
because I’d said “I wanna see this list”
He took me through every single item and its importance
This evening
he took mild satisfaction that he’d crossed another off the list
Yes, he’d been to the Melting Pot
had all the desserts
And I
not hungry even a moment before
was struck with unmistakable pangs & specific hankering
as he spoke of his poly-glycemic, glutenated adventure
or just right before?
Hard to say
But I felt it important to relay my sudden state
and of course he agreed in his meek, but enthusiastic way
that he was too
With only a hunch
I played naive (or thought I was but maybe wasn’t really) and asked earnestly:
“Dude, are you craving nachos too…?”
His eyes widened slightly, face lit,
head nodded with subdued but unmistakable intensity in the affirmative
‘Get the fuck out,’ I almost said fully out loud (the first two words probably nonetheless audible)
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