Are You a Cowboy?

The man walked heavy-footed across the cold, wet tiles. The various metal chains clinked as his leather vest made the slightest squeaking noise. The bandana wrapped about his head was maroon and orange with the flames enscribed upon it. His short heeled boots found his way to a bench where he proceeded to drop his bag and change into a swimming suit.
The boy's smile was wide and toothless between his pink lips. His tangerine shirt was stained with what I assumed was his last meal. His feet shuffled in quick circles about his father who was changing the diaper of another, younger child. Probably Tangerine Tim's little brother. His father was sweating around the face and Tangerine's hyper little activities weren't amusing him.
I had just finished swim practice and I needed to go to the bathroom. My hair stood in thin tentacles balanced about my head. I finished and made my way to the bathroom. Tangerine Tim and his father had just finished at the changing station and they were going to leave when Biker Bill caught Tangerine Tim's shiny little eye. The father began to leave but Tim slowed to halt in front of Bill. I just happened to over hear from my positon at the sink this statement slip from between Tim's bubbly lips: "Are you a cowboy?" I was startled by this and considered if little Tim was serious, but his voice expressed airy wonder at what he honestly believed was a cowboy. Bill looked up, (he was awkwardly bent over pulling up his trunks) and met Tim's eye. I was stunned by what came next. "Yes," said Biker Bill with a great big smile across his face. Tangerine Tim gasped in little kid way that made me laugh when I thought back on it. Father called back to Tim a moment later and he shuffled away from Bill who quickly returned to his trunks.

I thought that this was one of the best back-and-forths I've ever heard. Although it happened between a kid and a biker-looking fellow, it expressed how everything should be shared between two people who just met. Tangerine Tim wasn't afraid to talk to someone who looked different. Tim approached him, while changing no less, and asked Bill about what he assumed simply from how he looked. There was no fear of rejection or hatred in Tim's eyes when he asked. I walk around all over the place pretending not to see people and avoiding people who look a little scary to me. Tim is a role model.
Alternatively, Bill did just what should have been done. When approached by a kid and asked a silly question, he didn't feel the need to assert dominance over little Tangerine Tim. He looked Tim right in the face and verified what he knew was Tim's greatest desire at that moment. I've watched situations play out where the adult demands perfection or obedience from a child and will never give up. Children have an endless amount of things to say and Bill, knowing this already, simply gave Tim what he wanted. Biker Bill also didn't take it as an insult. He knew that Tim was as innocent as could be and, contrary to most adults, dropped into Tim's reality for a moment and did become the cowboy Tim needed right then. I wish every conversation I heard went like that. I'm just glad I remembered it this long.