I was ambling out of a building today. 

“Uncle Richard!” It was a high-pitched little girl’s voice. Looking up, I saw the most precious little girl with brightly colored glasses smiling at me. She was probably 5 years old.

Her mom stopped and softly told her that I wasn’t her uncle. 

Looking at me, the mom said that I did look extremely similar to her brother-in-law. 

I was going to ask if he was prone to wearing brightly colored glasses, but the little girl spoke again. 

“What’s your name?”

“Do you want to play Rumpelstiltskin? I’ll give you 27 guesses.”

This is where it got fascinating. 

The little girl smiled. “I don’t need any guesses. Your name is X.”

I know I looked stupid for a couple of seconds. It’s not just that I forgot about my name badge. No one looking at it ever correctly assumes that the big X on there is my name. As far as I can tell, only psychopaths and weirdos have names like mine. 

“How do you know that?”

“Your name is in the corresponding space for names.” 

I laughed and looked at her mom in surprise. For a child that age, her vocabulary and logical deduction about my name and badge was truly astonishing. 

“You are a very smart girl aren’t you?” 

“I hope I will be.”

“Say hello to your uncle Richard for me, okay?”

The little girl smiled. “Of course.”

I would say that I thought I might have just met one of our future presidents. But she’s much too smart for that.

PS The picture is one of the talkative and quarrelsome crows that likes to fly by me.