We were dropping Dexter off at school the other day and as soon as I put the car into park I realized that he forgot his violin. I let this sink in without saying anything while he got ready to disembark. First he said “oh shoot” and then casually, in a way I imagine only a pre-teen is capable of, he insisted that I go home and retrieve it and bring it back to the office. This all said without a hint of understanding that he was adding 50 minutes of effort to my pre-day ritual.

I pushed back a bit: “what would happen if you didn’t show up today?”

He replied: “Dad, I’m vice president of the second row violins. If Ascon doesn’t show up, and he’s been absent a lot lately, the second row won’t even have the back up second row vice president to lead them and our concert is 5 days away.”

“Okay, I’ll have your violin at the office by 9am”

Tatum and I drove home to get the violin and decorate it so Dex would feel comfortable walking the school grounds with a violin during mid day.

We left it at the office and they didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about a pink heart covered instrument case. It was the only one there.

[ joke executed, I feel better about the inconvenience ]

Fast forward to 3pm when we picked up Dex… he came bounding up with a big smile.

“Guess what dad? Someone at the office covered my violin with pink hearts and a bow.”

[ this joke got a little bit better ]

“Oh really, someone at the office did that huh?”

“Yeah, there were like five other instruments there and they all had pink heart sticky notes on them.”

[ Okay this joke got a lot better ]

Someone, other than the receptionist I talked to at the office, must have seen the violin and come over to see what the deal was and upon seeing Dexter’s name on the pink hearts /got/ the joke and passed it along to the other forgetful kids.

We may never meet but that person and I shared a moment.