Now, I don’t have any kids, well, at least no strangely familiar 20 to 30 year old’s have shown up out the blue at my cat welcome mat (just a regular one by the way – the one that meows when you step on it costs WAAY too much and sounds almost weirdly cruel) with surprise stories of moms and nights I might only slightly recall begging me ask the déjà vu question of if I have ever met them before, so I think the knowledge of my life and the marks on its doorframe’s timeline is pretty safe, though I think I’m getting shorter (my feet also seem to be getting smaller but that is another concern entirely).
But, I do have two nephews and a JG (the son of my ex), two of the three of which I did spend a good deal of time with in their early, post production testing the new wheels and horn stage.
One of them, Jake of the two nephews, which sounds like something that should have it’s own crest, the older, at 21, of my sis’s two boys, who is a uniquely funny and wonderfully smart, eclectic young guy, texted me last night, and, no, not to tell me that he had run into someone a little older than him who looked surprisingly like me, but to ask if I could take a “wild guess” at what book it was that he had just bought. Book? I know. What the hell is that thinks the youngin’s?
“Ummmmm, something Gene Wolfe?” I replied aware that he knows that Gene Wolfe is the absolute favorite of the sci-fi/fantasy geek that is his uncle.
“Nope” he replied back.
“Isaac Asimov, “Foundation”?” was my next guess. That one has just been in my head lately with a series coming and the thought of a reread, plus I might have mentioned such to him.
“One more try”
“Everyone Poops?”
“No, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”
Oh, a kid after his uncle’s old silly heart. Bless you son.
“Damn!” I said, hoping it would be “Everyone Poops” as classics need be recognized “I should have known to guess Hitchhikers”
He then went on to tell me how he keeps dropping the “so long and thanks for all fish” at work and how it infuriates him that no one gets it. Now, I’m sure those drops are missing a bit of context but I said I could understand the frustration and added that knowing something they don’t, like this, is still pretty cool.
He jokingly responded back one more time with “these uncultured swine”.
I did a bit of a genuine spit take at that one knowing that that is exactly the type of thing I might say, but just imagining it in the dry, sardonic way that is all Jake.
Ahhhhh, I may not have any kids but Jake? Ya just made your uncle proud.
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