Child's Play

Going to a Party in Astoria

Big awards night in Astoria. Driving down the Grand Central hoping I don’t hit too much traffic as the sun sets low on the NYC skyline. La Guardia airport slowing things down but I’m in the left lane and speeding along at a good pace. I’ll be there on time. Early if I find some parking by the school. I’m not going to the school though. I’m going to another place just a block away. Less than a block if I am luck. Tonight I’m not lucky and end up around the corner behind some construction workers. Putting in overtime I guess. Not that I’m interested. I park and walk on over.

Inside the crowd is already growing. We must number over forty at that point. I’m shaking hands, saying, Hi, to all the people I know and to my great surprise a friend’s five year old daughter of comes over and asks me to sit with her. We’ve already met. Once, at a party in the back yard of this very same building. I promise I will as I greet her father and we go for drinks. I pop my Heineken and take my seat. Nearby the girls mother tells me how excited her daughter is to see me again. “She lit up when you walked in.” I look over and she has her mother’s cell phone. Looking up the spelling of my name so she can write it on the picture of a cat that she drew. It’s the most adorable thing and I smile as I notice the pen is in her left hand. A fellow lefty. Her penmanship is nearly perfect. Most adults I know don’t write that legibly. We talk about cats and clay and what she has been doing. Then she wants to play tag. Which we do. I take off running after her.

We run and play and finally eat our dinner. She tells me stories about her big sister and all the things she wants to do. When it is time for the meeting I have to take a seat in the East. She wants to sit with me but the best course to keep her calm is to sit with her parents. Which is what we do.

The whole program takes forever. It’s hours before we’re done and by that time my little friends bedtime is long overdue and I still have things to do back home.

I can’t believe I didn’t want to go out tonight.