Encounters

I was sitting on the bus this morning while it took me to work, and I was working out a computation on the back of the paper I'm editing, scribbling furiously, pausing every now and again to look around at the people. In other words, one of my usual morning activities.... I look up at one point to see a little African-American girl in a cute bobble-hat (I'm guessing she was about 6, or 7?) carrying a pencil and a large notepad, sit down next to me. When I look up again, she's continuing whatever it was she was doing when she got on the bus wth her mom (sitting elsewhere) - she's doing a computation! She writes (in really large, confident, pencil marks):