Some times in Stuff

Didn’t sleep well last night. I kept waking up to sounds of what may have been Olsen and Darren in her room, or may have been coming from outside, or may have just been all in my head.

Mercer went out again with a friend last night and I was happy to see it. I like that he’s being more social. He told me they hung out at the mall. He’s generally quite honest with me so I have no reason to suspect otherwise, except I just really didn’t think kids these days spent time at malls the way we did when I was his age.

It’s funny. When Olsen goes out it’s always with her boyfriend, now by far the longest relationship she’s ever had. I don’t give much thought to where they go or what they do. I have a pretty good idea that they’re doing one of three options: having sex, smoking weed, or planning some sort of college-student idealist rally or event. Those seem to be her three loves.

I also worry much less about Harry, even though I know out of the three kids she’s the one most likely to get herself into mischief. She’s the type that would start a conversation with a complete stranger and then walk off with him or her to do whatever random thing sounds like a good idea at the time. But I also think she’s the smartest of the kids when it comes to making decisions because she ponders the long-term impact of everything, in a way that I don’t think even most adults are capable.

But Mercer isn’t accustomed to having a social life. I just don’t know what it would entail. And when I ask him for details I don’t get much.

I think I forgot to write here about his pronouns. Megan had the conversation with him. I appreciated her willingness to do that. Here’s my summary of his answer, presuming I have this right:

There are some times when he feels like he wants to be called by male pronouns and some times when he prefers female pronouns. Megan asked the obvious follow-up question about how we’re supposed to be able to know which he feels like at any moment. Apparently his answer was “I don’t know.” So I guess I’m good with male pronouns for now.