When she asks this question I often answer: “five.”
I don’t know that I’m serious. But I don’t know I’m not. I don’t know what the right answer is, I don’t know if I’m hiding my real answer or if I even have a real answer. But some questions and statements require a response and I always provide a response.
Emily knows this about me by now.
“But if we have five,” she protests, mildly, “we won’t be able to afford to send them all to college.”
(pause)
“Don’t say something stupid.”
Who? Me?