Page 62 of Counting the Days
“Ahree, what’shisname?” Chichi asked as she sidled up next to Danny.
“This is Danny…. Danny, this is Ada’s daughter, Chichi.”
“Nice to meet you, Chichi.”
Chichi looked unimpressed.
“Can I hear a joke?” Chichi asked.
“Why yes you can…. What do you call a baby potato?” Rhea asked.
“What?” Chichi was already laughing.
“A small fry.”
Chichi thought for a second, then laughed hard. Danny was so charmed by Chichi that he started laughing too.
“Like a French fry?” Chichi clarified through giggles.
“Exactly,” said Rhea.
“How do we know the ocean is friendly?” Danny asked Chichi in that tone one uses when setting up a joke.
“How?” Chichi asked excitedly.
“Because it always waves,” Danny said while waving.
Chichi giggled and said, “I’ve never heard that one! I wanna put a ocean on my onesie!”
She plopped her onesie down on the table next to Danny, looked up at him with her hypnotizing brown eyes, and asked, “Do you know how to draw a ocean?”
“I can try,” Danny said, “but I’ll probably need your help.”
Rhea watched Danny draw with Chichi.
“What color should the water be?” he asked.
“Um…blue!” Chichi said.
“How about the sky?”
“Um…green!”
“Wow, a green sky, I’ve never seen that before, that’s gonna look really cool. Do you wanna do the sky and I’ll do the water?”
Rhea was slightly taken aback by how good he was with Chichi. She had not quite been expecting him to turn full curmudgeon and wave his cane at all the little brats, but she was not prepared for him to bethisgood with children. Chichi was practically sitting on his lap. After his rant in the hot springs, she assumed he would be polite and curt in the presence of a child, trying to end the interaction as soon as possible, but she had assumed incorrectly.
“Should we put a mermaid in your ocean?” Danny asked.
“Yes! I love purple mermaids!”
“How ’bout I draw her tail and you color it in?”
“Yeah, okay, I’m gonna color it purple.”
“That’s a good idea,” Danny said with an endearing chuckle.
A thought knocked on the door of Rhea’s mind, and after trying to shut them out all morning, she finally let one in:What if Danny does want kids and he just doesn’t know it yet?
