Chinese Version 01-28-2024， Sunday， Sunny, San Jose

If the weather is nice on Sunday morning, I will take my grandson Ben for a walk. When he pushes his cart, I will follow him as his bodyguard and when he sits on the cart, I will be the rickshaw pusher. My daughter said this is a good bonding activity for two of us.

This morning, the sun was shining brightly, I pushed Ben to the residential area where a highway bridge runs up on top of the roofs of the bungalows to see the effect of cars running above the roofs. After getting there, I parked Ben’s cart on the side of the road so Ben was facing the highway bridge, I squatted next to him looking ahead and asked Ben: “Did you see the cars running on the roof?” Ben answered immediately: “Meiyou.”(No in Chinese) Then I pointed to the highway bridge in front and said: “Look, there are big cars and small cars passing by on the roofs!” Ben still said: “Meiyou.” (No) I guess the traffic signs, big trees and roofs in front of the bridge prevented Ben’s eyes from focusing on the cars running on the farther away bridge, so I pushed him to the place where the highway bridge stood in the air beautifully. However, Ben was not interested in whether there were cars at high altitude, so he got out of the cart and pushed himself to an open space under the bridge and played for a long time.

When Ben got tired of pushing, he climbed on to the cart to sit down, it was almost eleven o’clock. While pushing him home, we passed by a basketball court and saw someone playing there. Ben, who loves playing ball, pointed over there which meant he wanted to go over there to watch. While walking toward the basketball court, I saw a shirtless young man shooting and dribbling. We stooped at at a place less than ten feet away from the court, Ben sat on the cart and looked at the player quietly with an expression of eagerness to try from time to time, such as kicking his feet, smiling, leaning forward, and standing up. I asked him if he wanted to get off the cart and play. He then quickly walked to the basketball court after getting off. I also followed Ben to the court and asked the young man if he could let Ben play with his ball. He quickly put on his shirt and handed the ball to Ben to play with. We exchanged names and happily discovered that Ben, a 17-year-old high school student, and Ben, a two-year-old toddler, met by chance. Watching the two Bens playing basketball together, I praised Big Ben: “You are good at playing with children. Do you have any younger siblings?” He replied: “I only have a 19-year-old sister who went to college in Berkeley.” I asked again: “Then where did you learn to play with children?” He said: “I volunteered in our church to babysit children about five years old. They are older than Ben.” “What kind of church?” “Catholic.” I told him quickly: “Oh, I graduated from the Catholic University of America， which is next to the largest Roman Catholic Church in North America, the church is the biggest National Shrine of the United States.” I felt that it was his first time hearing about the Catholic University of America and was very happy to advertise for my beloved alma mater CUA.

Big Ben was playing ball with Little Ben and chatting with me. When Big Ben learned that little Ben has a six-month-old sister, he casually asked: “Can his sister crawl?” I was impressed that a high school boy could ask such a relevant question, so I praised him: “You really know kids! His sister is almost able to crawl.” Hearing my praise, he smiled shyly like a school kid. I looked at this sweet boy and thought about the common saying that high school students are studying long hours, so I asked curiously: “Do you feel high school studies are very time consuming?” He said: “Studying is okay, I spent many hours on a lot of extracurricular activities.” I asked: “What extracurricular activities? The school basketball team?” He said: “I am the president of the school leadership club and I am responsible for organizing activities.” It sounded like a high level club, so I asked : “Is it easy to join this club?” “Every year about half of the applicants can join. The club has about fifty of us. I also host a writing club and participate in a Vietnamese culture club.” “Are you Vietnamese?” “Yes, both my parents are.” I said, “Little Ben’s parents are Chinese.” I also told him that I studied chemistry at the Catholic University of America and later became a software engineer. He said that his parents were both engaged in medical research, and his sister majored in biomedicine. I asked him: “Do you know what you want to do in the future?” He said: “I want to join politics or become a lawyer.” I said: “Not many Asians participate in politics. It’s great that you have this wish so young! Your parents must be very proud of you.”

They had been playing for almost half an hour, and it was already past 11:30. I told Big Ben: “Little Ben should take a nap at 12 o’clock. Could you please go first? That way I can easily convince Little Ben to go home.” He said : “Okay, I’ll go first.” Before he left, I asked again: “Do you usually come here to play on weekend days?” He said: “I usually come here to play at night. This morning my mother asked me to go to a restaurant for breakfast with my uncle from Texas, because he came from Texas yesterday to attend another uncle’s wedding and he was leaving today. After breakfast, I had nothing to do, so I came here today.” I said: “I am retired and like to write short stories. Can I write a story using the photos of you two playing ball together?” He said: “Sure.” We then exchanged phone numbers and I said: “If you come here to play during the weekend in daytime, please let me know. I will bring little Ben here to play with you?” He said, “Okay.” Later I sent him the video and photos I took of them playing together and he liked them.

Little Episodes

1. Timeline:

At 10:19 a.m., we were under the highway bridge and Ben pushed his cart walked for more than half an hour.
At 11:14, we came to the basketball court to watch Big Ben playing, then two Bens played together.
At 11:44, Big Ben and little Ben fist bumped to say goodbye.

2. Little Ben was watching

While sitting on the cart and quietly watching Big Ben pitch and dribble, Ben showed an eagerness to try from time to time, such as kicking his feet, smiling, leaning forward, and standing up.

3. Two Bens were playing together