I was at the bank’s ATM today when a mother opened the bank’s doors and out came her six or seven year-old doing karate chops and kicks at the air, making all the appropriate “HEE-A!” noises. That got me thinking while I waited my turn at the ATM (the guy at it might have been doing his taxes): I wonder what it’d be like if we as adults never knocked that shit off, like we just did wild karate moves whenever we felt like it. My two year-old once took his shirt off at the grocery store check-out register while I was occupied with paying. Threw his shirt into the cart and started poking at the card-swiper buttons. I can’t lawfully do that as an adult, but what if I could? One time I took him to the mall dressed in a Superman shirt that had a cape on it. At one point he laid down on the tile floor with arms and legs extended just as if he flew through the air. People walked by awwing and laughing. If you imagine an adult doing it though you cringe a little. On that same trip, when we left the toy store after buying him something, he still cried, wanting more. Wouldn’t it be funny to see a wife tugging her husband out of Brookstone as he cried shrilly, red faced and sucking on his lip?
Anyhow, the idea struck similarly to The Invention of Lying, where the reality was that no one lied. I think a universe where grown-ups never stopped doing the absurd things children do would be something interesting to write about.
I don’t have any time to write it, but if it sparks any ideas in you, please share!