”Elisa…?” She found herself asking as they neared central park.

”Yes?” Elisa asked, relieved that Dominique had decided to open up to her again.

”Tell me something?” She asked.

Elisa smiled. ”About what?” She played along.

Dominique smiled too, charmed. ”About you, or anything really.” She qualified.

”Okay… let’s see.” They were close to the park now, and Elisa was looking for a parking spot. Not an easy task, Dominique gathered. One of the reasons why she’d never bothered buying a car or learning how to drive one. ”I remember… the first time I came to this park without mom and dad with me. I was fourteen, Beth was ten, and Derrick, my brother who I just realized I haven’t mentioned to you yet, was twelve.” She pulled into a free spot just in time, someone else coming from the other direction honking at them in dissatisfaction at being denied the parking spot they’d been wanting. She hadn’t broken any laws though, or been at all reckless, so she didn’t feel guilty about it. ”Sorry buddy, law of the jungle I guess.” She said, sighing and shaking her head a little at how rude people could be about something as inconsequential as a parking spot. She sometimes thought that that must be what was so wrong with so many people, that they just lacked for a clear perspective on what was, or should be, important in life. Why that was though, she really didn’t know. ”Anyway, it was a Friday near the start of summer and dad had taken Derrick to see a ball game. He wanted me and Beth to go too, but I told him I thought baseball was a dumb game for boys, that hotdogs were gross, and I didn’t want to go. And Beth said if I didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to either.”

Elisa paused in her story and got out of the car, so Dominique followed suite, Elisa coming around to her side of the car to meet her. ”And baseball is a sport, correct?” Dominique asked. She was sure it was probably common knowledge, and Elisa had called it a ’ball game’, but there were so many things like that that humans seemed to do, and she actually couldn’t recall ever hearing the term before.