There was this baby on the tube in London once, sitting in a stroller, bundled into one of those furry playsuits that have a hood with little ears on it. They had a box of Smarties and had been dexterously plucking out one at a time while watching the people all around. At the same time, the toddler was kicking their foot. The foot had a tiny polka-dotted Wellie on it and every time the baby kicked their foot, the Wellie came off a little more.
At some point, the child became aware that something was going on with the foot and looked down to see the Wellie half off. They pulled it off entirely. Now they had a box of Smarties in one hand and a dotty Wellie in the other. I watched them look from hand to hand and – sometimes, in rare, beautiful moments, you can see the machinations of another’s mind – I knew what was going to happen next.
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