Mom made the 8:00am appointment two days before Christmas for a hepatitis B

inoculation but was holding a meeting that morning. Mom was already VP of the

company and naturally her job was important. So it fell on dad to take the

kid. The clinic was ten minutes away by foot but as Tim preferred the car, dad

started the engine with a quiz: "Do you know what the fluff from wiping the

floor is called?"

    "Dustball or dust bunny." The answer came without missing a beat.

    "OK. 'Dust bunny' is new to me. But I just learnt the word lint."

    "Oh. Yeah. That too."

    "And do you know the meaning of the word linn?"

    "Dunno."

    "A waterfall or deep ravine. It's a Scottish word."

    "Aye. Aye. Sir."

It turned out mom made two mistakes: it was a meningitis and not hepatitis B

shot and it should be a lab and not doctor appointment.

Instead of sitting in the 150 sqft sterile clinic room trying to spot the hidden

objects in the picture on the opposite wall, Bill could have been enjoying coffee

and reading his favorite dictionary. He didn't mind at all, however, waiting

together with his teenager. In a matter of minutes, dad suspected and Tim

confirmed that meningitis translated to 脑膜炎 in Chinese. Moreover, as he was

keenly aware, in two and a half years the boy would be off to college which

seemed to make every moment spent together precious.

Tim wondered why medical insurance was expensive in the US. That was a mistake.

Dad jumped at the chance to share his version of the truth. He gave an example

of conflict-of-interest he first heard from Dr. Chris Kresser, which says instead

of taking out the stone from the shoe that hurt the patient's foot, the doctor

would prescribe pain-killers. If it had stopped there, it wouldn't have been

bad but the story just warmed him up. The boy had already regretted asking and

gone into silent mode while dad went on to impart his wisdom on the importance

of keeping truth in sight, which in time doglegged into a lecture on the state of

agriculture, nutrition, and diet and then specifically the virtue of cantaloupe

juicing. Thankfully, half an hour passed quickly and, before he started to expound

on the Tao, the nurse came in with the life-saving vaccine.

Heading back toward the parking lot and inhaling the crisp fresh air Bill sighed:

"What a nice morning to walk in and yet we have to drive!"

    "Of course it is, dad. I too would rather walk but for the car. By the way, do

     you know that thieves are marauding the neighborhood? Rustlers who used to

     harass cowboys lost their job as a result of industrialization and had turned

     into car thieves specializing in Honda Fit..."