“Is he misbehaving again? Let me talk to him.”

A man in the next booth over spoke loudly into his cell phone. I looked at him surreptitiously. He was ropy and disreputable looking- dirty jean jacket, stubble, and hard eyes.

“What’re you doing? What’re you doing? If I have to come over there- I’m close now. Now get in the corner.”

Henry and I tried our best to eat our dinner as if nothing was going on. We were quiet though, talking by lip-reading and tiny gestures so he didn’t notice our eavesdropping. Neither of us wanted to catch his attention.

There was a slight pause and then he continued. “Yeah. Is he in the corner? Good, good. Call me if he gets out of hand again.” He snapped his phone shut with a grimace.

The three of us ate in a bubble of silence that only affected our part of the restaurant.

The man I had dubbed as “Stern Father” made eye contact with me as he got up to leave.

Oh shit.

“Hey, you think you can train my Dalmatian better?” he asked.

He turned and left.

Dalmatian?