Dumb Kid

So I'm at my gym when I hear the following exchange between four First Graders and the bored 14-year-old  placed in charge of them. They are here for Summer Day Camp. I am here for the Special Double Combo Kickbox and Bosu Class, “Bosu” being that exercise device whose heavy circular base supports a rubbery hemisphere. (The word stands for “Both Sides Up.”)I can see that the little boy with the round face is trying to tell this junior staff member something. “Guess what, guess what, our lights went out last night!” But “Line up against the wall and sit,“ is all the youth says, and that in the voice of the world’s most bored person.“It was completely dark!“ the child says again. “No poking,” is all the dumb kid answers, eyes glazed over and mouth open.So... "How dark WAS it?” I ask. I have stopped and joined in it seems."It was SO dark!“ the boy enthuses. “And my mother had to get flashlights!”And you all told ghost stories?”  “Yup! Well.... actually, no. But nothing in the house worked! And it was AWESOME!”“Guess what, guess what?” says another child suddenly. “One time my mom burned the dinner! And the flames were HUGE!” Then “Oh! Oh!” says a third. “MY mom set off the smoke detective!” (Sweet! The smoke detective!) Then even the fourth child weighs in, actually raising his hand to tell of the time his baby brother flushed his grandmother’s glasses down the toilet.I realize it's for ME to be all twinkly and engaging with the four; after all I'm not the one who’s been out on a sweltering playground for the last two hours, but still. Little kids are little kids, exercise devices in their own right whose both sides are pretty much always up. I just think when they speak with such animation the least we big people can do is muster up a little joy in responding.