"You like animals?"
Wayne Munson's six year old menace of a nephew asks over Hopper's right shoulder, hovering so close that the kneeling man can smell the pond water on the kid.
Hopper ignores it.
He focuses on the sniffling five year old in front of him with the wood splintered in his hand. He doesn't point out that this is exactly why he tells him not to climb trees. Instead, Hopper breathes in, readjusts the tweezers in his hand, and then breathe out slowly, "You ready, kid."?"
Steve sniffles. He nods.
"You have a bird on your shirt," Eddie points out as Hopper starts the painful process. "You must really like birds."
"I do," Steve says, painful tears in his voice as he tries hard not to cry. "I-it's a pelican. Grandpa Otis got it for me in Florida."
"That's cool!"
"Uh-huh," Steve nods. "My favorite animal is a monkey 'cause they have hands and - and they hug each other, and eat fruit with their feet and they live in trees."
"You're kinda like a monkey."
"I know," He rubs his eyes. "I-I wish I was a monkey right now. They don't get splinters."
"You know a lot about monkeys," Eddie says. "Do you know a bunch of stuff about a bunch of animals?"
"Yeah," Steve nods. "I watch tv shows about animals and I remember what they say sometimes, and - and sometimes I go to the library. They got a lot of books about animals and I look at them. Sometimes Miss Sophie - she works there - helps me read the books."
"That's cool," Eddie says. "I’m older than you so I read my own books. I know some facts about animals, wanna hear them?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know why flamingos lift one leg in the air?"
Steve shakes his head.
"It's 'cause if they lift both, they'd fall down."
Eddie grins in the following silence and then grins more when Steve starts giggling. He's got another joke but-
"There you go."
Steve looks down at his now bandaged hand in surprise, at Hopper, and then back at Eddie, "You distracted me!"
Eddie replies sagely, "You're easily distracted."













