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"Oh, your secretary?" I'm surprised. If he had a job where he had a secretary, why is he at a literacy organization?
"I know what you're thinking. What's this schmuck doing here if he was an executive in a Fortune 500 company, right? Well, I wasn't an executive. I was the mailman. And the secretary wasn't mine, but we had a little thing. It was fun." He grins. "Don't ask how I delivered the mail if I didn't really know who I was delivering it to, but I got lucky. I had another female friend that would put stamps on all of the envelopes so I knew if it was going to zone A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, all the way through M. Each office had the letter on it so I knew which one was which." He grins. "Did that job for twenty years."
"Sounds amazing," I say.
"Well, it's not like I don't know to read and write completely. I never graduated high school, and I figured I got some grandkids who are struggling and I want to show them that granddaddy can do it too."
"That sounds great," I say.
"Yeah." He rubs his forehead. "I always used to say, who needs book smarts if you got street smarts? Because I got plenty of street smarts. But these kids these days, they don't got so much street smarts. Some of my grandkids, they ain't got no common sense, so they're going to need some book smarts. You know what I'm saying?"
I nod slowly. "I think so."
"So what, you're an attorney?"
"Yes, sir."
"Huh. You went to law school then, huh?"
"Yes, sir."
Well, you never know. You don't always need to go to law school to be an attorney."
"Most of us go to law school."
"Not that guy in that show." I stare at him for a couple of seconds, puzzled. "You know, Suits, that one with that Harvey Specter guy."
"Oh, I've heard of it. I've never really watched it. Too much time actually studying the law to watch shows about it."
He says, "You want me to read to you or something?"
"Sure, if that's what you normally do."
"Skye had me reading this book by Charles Dickens. You know him? He wrote that all-of-a-twist book and that Christmas book. What's it called again? Hey, Skye," he says loudly.
"Yes?" she says, turning around with a ghost of a smile at the corner of her lips.
"What's that Christmas book by Charles Dickens that you wanted us to read last Christmas?"
"A Christmas Carol," she says, grinning. "With Ebenezer Scrooge."
"Ah, yeah. That was it. Bah humbug," he says, and Skye giggles.
"You see, you remember that."
"I guess I do. Well, there's another one called A Tale of Two Cities. Skye says it’s good, so I figured maybe I could start with that."
"Sure," I say. "I didn't realize you liked Charles Dickens so much," I say, looking over at Skye.
"I do, but I guess you also have to remember you don't know everything about me."
"I know I don't," I respond. "But maybe I want to."
"Oh, Lord. Are you two flirting right here in front of me? Can I at least read my pages first?" Bobby says and I start laughing.
"Come on. Where's the book?" I lean back and I wait for him to grab the book and start reading. He's not an awful reader at least. There are some words he trips over and I try to be patient as I sound out the words for him and wait for him to repeat them. He reads two pages and then blinks as he looks up at me.
"I'm slow, aren't I? Are you looking at me thinking how does this old man not know how to?—"
