Yesterday it was hot, hot and muggy, and the kids had a friend over. After a dozen hours they were getting restless and bored, so at their suggestion I took them to the nearby mall to window shop. I had no desire to shop, window or otherwise, and so I took along my Kindle to read, and my phone, so I could stay in touch with them. The rest of Tucson had the same idea, apparently; the mall was as crowded as Christmas, swarming with people, music playing, lights blazing. I found a chair to sit in, to tune out the chaos and read, just like I used to do years ago at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Many summers ago, on these same kinds of days, Chuck E. Cheese’s was a relatively good deal for the money, where the kids could yell and run around and flit by the table from time to time to eat a piece of pizza. I’d take a book and settle in, tuning out the noise and keeping an occasional eye on them. The tether is longer now, just a cell phone call every hour or so, and the prizes they bring home are a little bigger.

But otherwise the drift of the day was the same: I curl up and read as they scamper from game to game, the hours pass until the angry sun sets, and we finally head home to our nest, fingers sticky, ears ringing.