Max was trying to say immune system but could only say maroon system instead.

Tonight he asked me why there were so many teenagers at Terror in the Corn Maze at Anderson Farm. Then he asked me if teenage years are the best years of someone’s life. When I said it can be for some people, he asked if it was for me. I said no.

“What were your best years?”

Me: “Now”

Max “Why?”

Me: “Because I have you and mama and Elliot, I have my new family.”

I then said how fun teenage years were for me, except for the first two years of high school.

“Why?”

He asked if I was a good kid.

“Yes, except for the egg incident and the hacking incident. I didn’t get into trouble and got  decent grades.”

I think he is looking forward to being a teenager.

We then had a long discussion about my teenage years, why some were good and bad. And I told him the good parts were being with my family (not all together at once), and how I went exploring mysteries with my father all the time and to the beach and traveling with my mother. I told him about 3 trips to the Pine Barrens: the abandoned electronics factory that was later an EPA clean-up site, the abandoned blueberry/cranberry packaging buildings, the mysterious abandoned buildings near the old train tracks that my father was scared of — two men talking (but only one seen) and a baseball bat removed from a trunk. Being very quiet. Getting out of there very quickly. My father’s sense of urgency and his fear.