encounter on the stairs

I was at a school, about to give a class, when I passed a boy walking down the stairs. He had his nose in a book, apparently too engrossed in the story to look where he was going. Normally, I wouldn’t have said anything, but there’s something about being in a school that makes me feel a bit bossy and teacher-ish.

“Aren’t you worried you’ll fall if you keep reading like that?” I asked.

Without missing a beat, or even taking his eyes off the page, the boy delivered what might – in my opinion at least – be a contender for the best comeback in the history of the world.

“No,” he said. “I’m worried I’ll fall if I stop.”

That is all.