I was thinking to myself, what if when Lady’s kids return to us this afternoon after school, they don’t have anything for their mom’s birthday, which was yesterday, but they were at their dad’s house yesterday. So I stopped for a blank birthday card. Turns out the girls had made a card for their mother. Not David, her 13-year-old son. At the dinner table, he began to explain to his mom that he didn’t have anything for her and hadn’t had any way to get her anything. I caught his eyes and mouthed, “I got you,” and at that moment he stopped making excuses for not having something for her. His eyes widened as if to eagerly say, Okay! Then he nodded coolly. Lady caught a part of this nonverbal communication, but held her silence. Dinner ended and David asked me if I wanted to play baseball catch. We tossed for about 40 minutes. We didn’t talk much, but the rhythmic back and forth of the baseball slapping baseball glove was our communication. I told him that when we’re done he could grab the card in my front seat. We concluded by making 25 consecutive throws and catches without a miss to end clean. Inside the house, David went missing. That’s when Lady asked where David was. I knew he was working on that card. I replied, He’s okay. Five minutes later, he emerged with card in hand. He approached her on the couch and tossed the card at his mom. She didn’t see it coming. It hit her in the face. He looked over at me. “That was smooth, wasn’t it?”