Leave It To Me

I went for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday with my granddaughters: Abby, fourteen and looking all cool in her sunglasses, ripped up jeans and flip flops, and Reagan, two, chillin' in her stroller, sucking on a pacifier. We hadn't gone more than a few houses down the street when we walked past a couple of "hot" young teenage boys playing basketball in their driveway. I could have sworn they didn't even see us pass by, but I am old and stupid. About ten minutes later they rode passed us on their bicycles and bravely threw a "hello" in our direction. And even though I was pretty sure it wasn't intended for me, I gladly threw one back, because these days I prefer friendly to cool. Upon arriving back at the house, I suggested to Abby that she might want to sit outside for a while because I was peritty sure those boys would come cruising again. And sure enough, she wasn't out there long when they came tooling by on their bikes. When they spotted her, they threw a note in her direction which landed closer to the curb than to her. That's when she came running in the house and wanted to know if she should retrieve said note and I assured her it was imperative that she do so. It turned out to be an invitation to text them @ (their) numbers, an interestingly subtle approach that was sorely missing (due to lack of cellphones) back in my day. But back to the note. Exactly what did it mean? After consulting with me (the in-house expert on matters such as these) I explained that it meant she should text those boys. So, she sent a "hey" their way, to which they cleverly replied with a "hey" back. So figuring they were probably stuck in "hey" hell, I said, "What's the big deal? Tell them to come on over here and talk to you." At first, she was aghast at the very suggestion, because texting is easy. Talking? That's a whole nother level. But finally she decided to try this unique approach. Their response? "Be there in five." So, she met the two nice, age-appropriate neighborhood boys, who urged her to visit her grandmother more often, and I'm betting she probably will. So I'm not so stupid after all.