Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
8 min in Glassel Park, Los Angeles
Stephanie was speechless. She wanted to tell him that it was rude to answer a question with a question, but his placid and unwavering gaze disquieted her. Before she could repeat her question, he asked his again.
“Is everything okay with your family Miss Campbell?”
Back at the start of the school year he had asked if her son liked to play basketball too. She asked him why he thought she had a son? He pointed to the logo of the junior basketball league on her key chain. She told him her daughter didn’t play anymore and briskly steered him back to the topic of the lesson plan. Her husband had suggested she take today off, but she insisted that being with the children soothed her. And there was something soothing and earnest about this odd child. She remembered now that he had nodded ever so slightly at her dismissal, as if understanding the full import of all she had not said.
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