A cluster of shrieks echoed down the hall where Alice had led Shannon. Cooper helped himself to a fresh beer and followed the noise. He found Shannon in the family room, standing on top of a sectional sofa, counting down with her eyes closed. “Three, two….one…go!”
Seven children, Alice among them, all shifted from foot to foot, ready to dart. Shannon opened her eyes, glanced around the room, then made a languorous fake to the left before leaping off the couch to the right. The boy she lunged at tried to dodge, but she tapped him with one hand, spun, saw two children running toward each other, held a half a beat, then tagged them both as they collided. The touched kids stood still as statues, while the remaining four dodged around the edges of the room, using the furniture and their frozen friends as cover. Shannon said, “I’m gonna get you,” then turned and tapped a boy who had been sneaking behind her. He giggled and froze.
Cooper watched the game with a broad smile. Shannon stalked the final three children, easing left and right, corralling them. The woman was the indisputable master of freeze tag.
“You have kids?”
“Huh?” He turned, saw Lee had come in behind him. “Two. A boy and a girl, nine and four.” He thought but did not say their names. Took a long swallow of beer.
“Greatest things in the world, aren’t they?”
“Yes. Yes they are.”
“Even when you want to kill them.”
“Even then.”
Shannon tagged out the final three in rapid succession, getting Alice last, then wrapping her in one arm and tickling her with the other. When Shannon finally let the girl breathe again, Alice said, “Me next!” She moved to the center of the room. But instead of beginning a new round of tag, she said, “Chicago places.”
“Navy Pier,” said a pig-tailed girl.
“600 East Grand Avenue.”
“The Zoo!”
“2200 North Cannon Drive.”
The other children began to yell out. “Tasty City!”
“My mom’s house!”
“The airport!”
“2022 South Archer Avenue, 337 West 24th Place, O’Hare Airport is 10000 West O’Hare and Midway Airport is 5700 South Cicero.”
Cooper’s belly tightened as he realized what was happening. As the children kept shouting places, he turned to Lee. “Your daughter is gifted?”
The man nodded. “We started on Goodnight, Moon, but she prefers the phone book. She’ll get on my d-pad and read listings for hours. Not just Chicago, either. She knows New York, Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles. Anytime we go on a trip she reads the phone book first.”
Lee’s pride radiated in every word and every muscle of his face. Smitten with his daughter, and delighted at her abilities. It stood in such sharp contrast to the typical parental reaction, to Cooper’s own reaction. This wasn’t a man worried about what the world would think, afraid that she might end up tested or labeled or living in an academy. This was pure joy in the wonder that was his daughter.
“Now you, Zhi.” Shannon pointed to the boy who had tried to sneak up on her.
“Okay.” He stood ready, a pupil confident before a teacher.
“Use the addresses. Add them.”
“34,967.”
“Multiply them.”
“1.209 times 10 to the 36th.”
“Add them with north and west positive and east and south negative.”
“Minus 243.”
Alice joined in. “The Zoo times Tasty City minus Andrea’s house.”
“4,448,063.”
“Navy Pier divided by the school.”
“2.42914979757085…”
The kids were having a ball, and Zhi stood in the center of it, giving every answer without hesitation. Cooper stared, realization dawning. “They’re all brilliants?”
“Yes,” Lee said. “As I said, this is a play date.”
“But—” He looked at the children, at Shannon, back at Lee. “Aren’t you…I mean…”
“Worried about hiding the fact that they’re gifted?” Lee smiled. “No. Chinese culture sees things differently. These children are special. They bring honor and success to a family. Why wouldn’t we love that?”
Because someone who works for my old agency could call you at any moment. “The rest of the world doesn’t see it that way.”
“The world is changing,” Lee said softly. “It has to.”