“AAAAH! MONKEY !!” The boy cried as though he were twelve years younger than he was.

“Sean, calm down!” I tried to console him, letting him cling to me like…(tee hee) a monkey to a tree. “Besides…that’s an ape, not a monkey.”

“They’re all the same to me,” he panted through his sheer, pathological fear.

“Were you traumatized by a monkey or something?!” I joke. I immediately wish I could swallow my words, but my foot was in the way! To see your fifteen-year-old boyfriend cry at something the three-year-old kid next to you is pretending to be by scratching his armpits and exclaiming “OOH OOH AAH AAH !” is beyond disconcerting. Especially when said boyfriend NEVER stops smiling. “Oh…Sean, I’m sorry! Do you want to talk about it?”

He nodded. Of course. Sean never passes up the opportunity to tell a story. Even one about how he broke away from his parents one time at the zoo. Even one about how he climbed into the enclosure where his life changed. Even one about monkeys.