“This is really good Mr. Kildare” Becca said between two spoonfuls of tomato soup.
“I’m glad you like it.” My dad had his cooking apron on and was eating his bowl of soup while standing and leaning against the kitchen counter. We sat across the kitchen island sitting on stools that were the perfect height to be sitting at the counter. “We should plan a dinner so I can get to meet your parents.”
“Dad just likes to cook big meals. It might still be nice to get together again. He doesn’t spend much time around adults his own age.” My dad stifled a chuckle at what I said and that caught Becca’s attention.
“You look really young Mr. Kildare. You must have had Xena while you were still in high school.”
My dad gave a smile and I listened intently while trying to not look like it.
“I’m a lot older than I look but I’ll take the compliment. Xena’s mother and I were well out of high school when she was born.” That is more information than I’ve ever gotten about dad’s age. He always refuses to talk about it. My guess was up until now that he had gotten my mom pregnant really young and didn’t want to talk about it. If that’s not the case I wonder why he won’t tell me. Is he really old and just looks really young?
If he was out of high school when I was born that means he would have been around 18 but that would make him around 35. He only looks barely 25, so that would mean he looks ten years younger than he is but that isn’t unheard of.
He might have graduated early? I think I remember him saying he went to a public high school. He could have graduated really early with how smart he is, so if I put his graduation around sixteen, and if I was born then, that would mean he’s 33 and looks eight years younger than he is. Looking eight years younger is feasible. But I might be completely off. Whatever it is, I’m sure he’ll tell me eventually.
“Wow! What’s your secret for eternal youth Mr. Kildare? I promise I won’t tell.” Becca said to tease my dad.
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“It runs in our blood. Xena here will probably make you jealous when she gets close to my age. Sadly, it’s not something I can bottle and sell.” After that last sentence my dad grimaced. “At least, it’s not something I could bottle and sell easily.” And with that a smile came back to his face.
It almost looked like my dad was in pain there for a second. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad in pain. Becca didn’t seem to notice.
“Lunch was really good! If inviting my parents over for dinner gets me more good food like this, I’m all for it!” Becca picked up her bowl and moved to rinse it out in the sink.
“Here, let me get that.” Dad said while holding out his hand for the dish.
“Would you like to see my room? I’ve already finished this weekends homework if you want to compare answers.” I gave dad my bowl too and motioned for the stairs.
“I haven’t started my homework yet.” Becca said sheepishly. “And I didn’t bring it to church, so maybe you could give me the tour and we could watch a movie or something?”
I felt like an idiot. I could remember every question and answer on my homework for the entire year but, I forgot that other kids in school didn’t have a memory like mine. I had known she didn’t have her homework with her but for some reason I didn’t think past that.
My dad had suggested to me to play down my memory around my teachers so I don’t make a scene. He said if I wanted I could show everyone my almost perfect recall but it might draw a bunch of attention and he knew I didn’t like being surrounded by people and pestered.
My best friends knew about it though, so I still got to show off every now and then.
“Yeah! I’ll show you the library and study. We call it a study, but it’s just a game room I do my homework in. We could watch a movie on the projector!”
“Projector?” Becca asked, bewildered.
“I guess you’ll just need to see it for yourself.” I said with a big grin. I don’t get to show people around my house hardly ever so I was going to enjoy this for all it was worth.