chap 1: c

C was the coolest kid in kindergarten, and my best friend. It wasn't until some time later that we realized that we had mistaken his reticence for aloofness, and what was probably shyness for a deft social touch. (We had however already begun to rank each other on this capricious scale, a habit which none of us has broken yet.)

This probably made me the second coolest!

C has an easy if slightly goofy smile. He has a much older brother, and a little sister that takes after him, a little. When we were younger, they would stage large-scale battles between C's blocky yellow Lego men and his brother's. Both of them had extensive collections of knights and castles and pirates. I only had a handful of the little yellow guys to offer, but outfitted them with motorcycle helmets and lightsabers made from translucent Lego antennae, and told him that they were better-trained. By this time, though, he was reluctant to declare war on his brother's considerable forces. A war could take a whole week, he explained, and I was only sleeping over for one day.

I think that C wants to be an artist, but I am not sure if he really just wants to doodle. (His doodles are very, very good, although his notes are correspondingly atrocious.) I don't see him very often anymore, but I think he might need to try a little harder to really make it. I think he is probably very talented, though.

C wears that smile when he thinks that no one is watching, or to deflect attention. (Ironically, it is a very winning smile, and I think it's earned him some number of admirers.) When you tell him something, his eyes widen, even if it is already the second or third time you have told him this story. He is happy to hear your second-or-third-time story and he wants you to know it. When he is trying to make an arrowhead out of a pointy pebble, though, or whittling a whistle out of some promising piece of wood, or watching an army of ants crawl up a dirt ramp he just built, he is smiling a slightly goofy smile. Especially when no one is watching.