The boy is standing in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. The weekend before, his parents decided he was mature enough to sit quietly through the performance and took him to Ford’s Theater to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.
As he holds his mother’s hand, he listens to the cash register ring. The woman behind them says suddenly, “Your little boy is so cute.”
The boy looks up at her.
“I look handsome. I look smart. I am a walking work of art.”
His mother squeezes his shoulder. “Hush your mouth!”
The Living and the Dead, by Gordon Laws 