1. We’re Going to D.C.
“Ok Ben,” she said. “We’ll be leaving for D.C. on Saturday.”
Trudy and I and Ben had been chatting on the phone for a while: one of the rare times when we get caught up with what he’s doing up there in northern Ohio.
“You’re going to D.C., too?” he asked her. “You’re going with Dad?”
I had told him the previous week that I was going to be there for training, but I hadn’t mentioned that Trudy and I had decided to make a mini-vacation of it. So Trudy filled him in.
“I’m going to be there, too,” he said.
“This weekend!?” Trudy asked.
Fine thing. When he and I had talked, he hadn’t said a thing about it. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
2. Matchbox
So we managed to coordinate a meet-up.
On Saturday we arrived at our hotel in Reston, VA and texted him to figure out when he and his friends would be finishing up from their youth environmental activism training conference. 9:00 he said. So we cooled our heels and did some online research and eventually texted him to let him know where to meet us. We chose Matchbox in Chinatown.
I was sitting in a little bay window in the front of Matchbox when I saw Ben and his four friends come walking down the sidewalk. They were smiling and talking and looking at each other and moving back and forth on the sidewalk like you might see in some hip ad for trendy clothes. The cool kids. Out in the evening. Out on the town. I smiled.
He looked up and saw me sitting there. And his eyes widened. And he waved at me. And he broke into a run, making for the door of the restaurant.
He broke out into a run. Leaving his friends behind. To give his dad a hug.
3. Dessert
“Thanks, Dad,” he said after we had studied the menu and ordered.
We were sitting at a big round table upstairs that the hostess had held for us for 20 minutes, because Trudy and I had shown up about 20 minutes early.
“Thanks,” he said, “for bringing us to this swanky place!”
Trudy and I looked at each other. Frankly, we probably wouldn’t know what swanky was if we saw it. We smiled.
“You’re welcome,” we said.
And then for dessert, we pulled out the chocolates that we had bought from Edibles Incredible! Desserts. Three sets of five chocolates. The Fair and Industrious Trudy handed the bags to Ben. I hope he distributed the booty as we intended.
4. Hugs
And with that, dinner was over.
We said our goodbyes on the sidewalk just outside the bay window where I had spotted them a couple hours before. It was hugs all around. Not sure what they all thought of that, but … whatever.
And then they went back from whence they had come, and we turned the other way to walk back to the car.