Red Lobster, Blue Corvette, Islands & Swan

Angel (handing my phone to Lai, age 7): “There, it looks like that.” (I show her the baby blue Corvette I’m drooling over, see previous story.)

Lai: “Buy it. Does it have a back seat?”

Angel: “No, two front seats.”

Lai: “Does it have a passenger airbag?”

Angel: “That’s a VERY good question. Probably.” (I google it, yes it does; we both know she can’t ride up front if there’s an airbag.) “Good thinking. I never would have thought of that. That solves it. No, we’re not buying it.”

…(now we are seated at Red Lobster)…

Lai: “The smaller fork of the two forks is for your salad. These are the same size.”

Angel: “Then you go by the one farthest from your plate. You work your way in towards the plate. The knife is on the other side, closest to the plate. The sharp edge faces the plate. The spoon is next to the knife, on the outside of the knife, farthest from the plate. When you’ve used your knife it goes on the top of your plate, like this… The sharp edge faces you. You open the napkin and it goes in your lap. Here, you try.” I gather up the tableware in one pile. Lai puts her napkin in her lap. Then she puts all the tableware in their right positions. “And when we’ve used our knife?” Lai puts it on top of her plate. “Which direction does the sharp side go?” Lai says facing her. “Perfect.”

…Now Lai is scrolling my Facebook page as we wait for our food…

Lai: “Bora Bora…”

Angel: “The names of the other islands near Bora Bora are: Tahiti, Moorea, and Tetiaroa (that’s enough). Find me the mountain top on Bora Bora.”

Lai: “Here.” (She shows me.)

Angel: “Yes.” Find another.

Lai: “There are two more.”

Angel: “One’s in the clouds. You can’t see the top. It’s the top that makes it distinct. It always looks like this…(I show her.) She shows me the correct two.

Lai: “I’m tired.”

Angel: “You can eat your key lime pie.” I had ordered it first. Lai had eaten key lime yogurt for breakfast, her new favorite. I had known she was starving.

Lai: “I ate half. I’m giving the other half to mommy. She’ll be tired from a long day.”

Angel (looking through my phone) “This is Tetiaroa. It’s an atoll. (I show her the pic.) It has 12 islets in a circle. An islet is like a baby island, see… The water in the middle is only this deep…(I point to about 5 ft.) Some places it’s deeper. It’s crystal clear, you can see millions of fish.

The waitress brings our food…

…(Walking back to our van)…

Angel: “What in the world was I thinking! We can’t give up our beautiful Swan…”

Copyright 2025 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved

Written Nov. 4, 2025 at 6:13 pm