I plopped down in a reading chair at Chapters book store to wait for Sharon to be finished her shopping and struck up a conversation with the young girl in the next chair. Raven haired and bright intelligent eyed, perhaps 9 years old, She was delightful!

I noticed a pile of perhaps ten books on the floor in front of her and several more in her lap. I commented that she must be a voracious reader and that I hoped she was still there when my wife came to fetch me (alas, she wasn’t). She looked at me with twinkling dark eyes and proudly confirmed that she loved to read. Her mum was nearby and confirmed her daughter’s love of books. She asked her daughter if she had made her choice of three books yet? I asked the girl how she could cull only three from this collection and she said “it’s OK, I have a huge stack unread at home”. I told her she should ask for a raise in her allowance and asked if she also belonged to a library. She told me she did, but prefers having books to hold and look at and re-visit on her shelf. I told her we had run out of shelf space at home and books were stacked haphazardly in practically every room. She approved, knowingly.

I had started today in a particularly dark mood from doomscrolling and reading about intolerable assholes disparaging my country (Canada) and seeing more neofascists on the rise in the world. My mood was lightened a bit by a video call from the daughter who is going to make me a grandfather next month!!!! I was still out of sorts, but less so. After my little exchange with this child, however, I was positively giddy as I relayed the story to Sharon and she expressed regret that she had not met this clever young lady herself. Sharon said she was like that as a child as well and wished they had met. Readers!