After returning from church, an activity I chose not to participate in as I would have felt extremely guilty had the holy building burst into flame once I entered, my nephew, grandniece and I left for brunch at a restaurant with a large outdoor riverfront deck space. My niece in law, remembering a theatre group meeting at the last minute, was to join us for our other activities later in the day. There, over mimosas and an ample cinnamon roll we began to play one of my favorite games. Who Are These People and What Are They Doing Here? A cheerful waitress took our order, a rather handsome in a hipster sort of way, humorless server brought us our food and the game was afoot.
A large, bearlike, bearded man, young enough looking for the waitress to ask for his I.D., shared a table with what were obviously his parents. Was he visiting them or were they visiting him? At another table was a larger group. A couple with a tiny baby, an older couple and two men close in age to the presumed parents of the aforementioned newborn. One of the younger men seemed to favor the baby's mother. He was handed the baby at one point. New uncle was the concensus between my nephew and myself. The other man was harder to read. His taut, athlectic body was clad in a tight fitting gray tee shirt. He wore his baseball cap backwards, although he was advanced enough in age where this look no longer really worked for him. He was accompanied by an extremely large, fearsome looking dog with a barbed choke chain around his neck. He seemed to maintain little control over the massive animal. There was some concern among us, not entirely unreasonable, that the dog, if allowed to, might eat the baby.
Later that evening relaying the story to my niece in law, she turned the tables on me. She suggested that other diners may have been playing the same game with our table as the subject. She suggested that they may have taken me for my grandnieces grandfather. I suggested that this was dismaying as it could easily be true.
I enjoy your reads
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