Ask And Ye Shall Receive

I am at a hotel in Kansas City, MO, at the Robert Heinlein Centennial convention with some friends. I was up in my room heading down to the sports bar for some dinner. I get on the elevator and there's another guy in the elevator with me. Kinda had a Mediterranean look to him shorts and and a Hawaiian shirt on, beer on his breath. Obviously someone on vacation. Looked more like the kinda guy you find at a swinging singles resort deep in the Carri bean. He asks me what floor I want and I tell him I'm going to the "Mezzanine" level. He punches that button as well as the Lobby button for himself. All very mundane.

About halfway down, the elevator stops and opens up. In walks this kid. Swimsuit, T-shirt with some sort of cartoon show on the front. He struck me as being a very active kid. He'd obviously spent a lot of time in the sun because he had a deep tan and sun-bleached blond hair. So Swinger guy asks the kid what floor he wants. The kid, for some reason, puts his back to the back wall of the elevator and in a loud voice tells him the Mezzanine level. Swinger guy punches the button and then the kids says in a very loud voice, "Before you say anything else, I am 12 years old!" Uh OK. Not sure where this is coming from. Sanger guy and I exchange glances like, "huh?"

Elevator door closes. Kid feels the need to elaborate. Again, in a voice about three times as loud as it needs to be, he says, "I'm 12 years old and can take care of myself. I am just going to the pool which is on the other side of Mezzanine level. I don't need any help!"

Swinger guy and I both proceed to crack up. Apparently the kid took umbrage at someone else punching the elevator button for him, like he needed help or something. Swinger guy and I looked at each other again, this time with barely contained amusement. Swinger guy, trying not to laugh out loud, says, "OK". I had to turn my face away from the kid so he wouldn't see me smiling and laughing under my breath.

We stopped at the Mezzanine level. Let the Twelve Year Old Kid get off first. As I followed him off the elevator the thing that struck me the most about this little Incident, is that both Swinger Guy and I had a natural inclination not to let the kid see us laughing at him. We obliged him. We tried to take his assertiveness seriously even though it was pretty damn funny.