After school table talk

Christopher: Smrithi has been really nice to me lately.

Mom: Maybe she likes you.

Christopher: You mean "like me" like me?

Mom: Yes.

Christopher: I've never heard of a Negro and a white person together.

Mom: She's not black, she's from India.

Christopher: What's the difference since her skin is black?

Mom: It's where she's from. It doesn't matter what color her skin is anyway. What matters is how she is on the inside, as a person.

Christopher: Smrithi wants me to make her a bird (origami).

(Later...)

Christopher: Mom, can you take me to Smrithi's house to drop off this bird?

Mom: Sure, do you want to take her a donut too?

Christopher: Okay.

(Under the cake platter dome, are an assortment of Krispy Kreme Valentine's donuts that I had just bought for the family for a surprise. I'm wondering if he'll choose one of the heart shaped ones. He does.)

Christopher: Do we have any pretty plates that she can keep that I can take it on? I don't want to use just a paper plate.

Mom: Sure, she can have this one.

We drive up the street and around the corner to Smrithi's house while I wait in the car and Smrithi greets Christopher at the door. A moment later, he comes back to the car, smiling. I see through the window of Smrithi's house before I drive away, a little girl dashing off to show someone at home what she's just been given.

Later that evening, Christopher decides he wants to make Smrithi a whole "nest" of birds, and he spends much of his normal computer gaming time crafting little birds for Smrithi. He asks if he can use a tape runner and packing paper to make a nest. He's going to drop it off to her house today after school.