Joe Remembers
On Friday nights when Carole was away, Ari and I would go to the Japanese restaurant on Geary and 18th Avenue. The wait staff loved him and always put an extra cookie or treat on his plate. Once, when we were walking home after dark, Ari asked me if I was ever afraid of the dark. He asked the question in a serious manner, which made me think it was a question of some concern to him. I am guessing he was somewhere between 7 and 10. Years old. I said that when I was very young I sometimes imagined “monsters” in the dark as in fairy tales. I told him “As you get older you realize that monsters are pretend and that the dark is just the lack of light and the world in the dark is the same as the world in the light, with nothing to fear in it. We kept walking, and he seemed to feel better and enjoyed our many night walks.
He loved having breakfast in bed.