LITTLE CHARM

Little Leona lives on a block with a donut shop, a lively Mexican cantina, three other restaurants, and a gym, not very far from Chinatown, where she goes to school.
Little Leona is a talented young lady, who in twenty years will turn heads and intoxicate grown men with her voice and her charming laughter.
But at the moment, little Leona is only four years old.
Maybe five, but I seriously doubt it.
Too small to be six.

Her talent at present is manifested by being able to write her name in clear and very legible, evenly proportioned letters, in diverse colours of pencil. Very neat. Very readable.


Little Leona was on the bus with her mommy. Than whom she is far less than half as tall, and her mommy is not a large woman.
Small bright creatures, both of them.

I first became aware of little Leona because she was talking, and had the most unusual voice. Well-modulated, she sounded mature and self-aware, rather than childlike and squealish. She and her parental unit were both standing near the door, and when a seat became available they sat down, diagonally in front of me and beside an elderly uncle type.

She and her mommy have a wonderful relationship.
It is warm and mutually supportive.

I could see her holding a sheet of paper which she was anxious to show to her mommy, but because she was actually on her mommy's lap, the dynamic presented a problem. Finally she just unfolded it, and held it up above her head, at mommy eye level. Leona. Plus her surname. Beautiful. Her mommy and the aged gentleman next to them agreed that it was very nice, while I said nothing and just smiled. Sitting behind them it would probably have been disturbing if I had chimed in.
I was observing her hands. So tiny. So tiny!

She also has lovely hair, in that way that well-groomed little Chinese girls often have. Soft-looking, almost feathery, yet dense, dark, and floppy. It hung neatly, naturally.
Her clothes were comfortable, rather than cute.


She knows very many letters. Almost the entire alphabet. One wonders how useful that is at present, seeing as I did not hear her speak a single word of English, but undoubtedly it is a head-start on academia. Where she will, in one or two years, meet her intellectual inferiors. She'll go far.
She has a resolutely intelligent personality.
Plus a maturity beyond her years.
Her mommy is very good.


The two of them live around the corner from my apartment.
I presume that daddy also lives with them.
It's a nice neighborhood.
Because.



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