I went to pick up Chinese food for dinner tonight. The family that runs the restaurant has a few children that are usually present, including a small girl. She was entranced to discover I would say "Hi" back when she said "Hi" to me, but I was a little nonplussed when she switched to "Ho Ho Ho". From that point she said many things, but I have no idea what. Possibly because she was speaking Chinese, or maybe because she was about three years old. I don't know which.
I sat down in a chair to wait for my food. The child toddled over, retrieved a melamine plate, and set it in front of me. "Thank you, but I don't need a..." The child was headed across the floor again, returning with a napkin. She kept one for herself to play with for a while. "Thank you, but no I don't..." Shortly thereafter she left and returned with plastic utensils. Then another place setting appears, and she even brings a fried noodle for herself (I don't know where that came from) which she starts trying to cut up with a plastic fork. By this point I'm starting to look around hopefully for someone to re-emerge from the kitchen and at least make some comment on all of this.
Lacking much success with her noodle, the child went over to her McDonald's play set in the corner. (I have to admit there is something that just strikes me as weird that there is a McDonald's play set in the corner of another restaurant.) She returns unfolding an actual dollar bill which she attempts to present to me. (I think some aspects of business may still be eluding her.) Unable to convince me to take it, she gleefully tears an edge from it and laughs. Before too much else happens, the mom comes out of the kitchen with my order, and I get to escape. I told the lady that the waiters here are so young, and pointed out the partly set table and her daughter. She laughed. I didn't mention the dollar.
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