Chats with Lolo—Part 1
In which our characters meet
“It sucks to be a girl! Did you know that?”
The sixty-something man sitting on the park bench looked up from his iPad and over at the young girl who had seated herself abruptly at the other end. Seeing no one else around, he decided she might be addressing him, so he replied, “Not necessarily. I’ve known any number of women who were very happy to be women. I think there’s a case to be made for both genders.”
His companion glared at him. “Have you ever been a girl? No? Didn’t think so! So nobody cares what you think!” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at something in the distance.
The man closed the cover on his tablet to devote full attention to the unhappy girl. Based on her clothing (blue jeans and feminine shirt), size (about a foot shorter than he was), and voice, her guessed her to be maybe ten years old. “So did you just have a sudden insight into why being a girl is so awful, or did something happen to provoke this?”
“School! Girls have to wear skirts to school. Boys don’t. That sucks!”
“Okay. Or. Boys have to wear pants, girls have to wear skirts. What about that?”
She glared at him. “Ever worn a skirt?”
