Fatherhood 101

“Having my daughters makes all the difference, to me and my parents. They started hinting for babies at my wedding reception.”

“I get that, too. Hunt’s engaged now so that takes the pressure off the rest of us to give Alma and Felix grandchildren before they’re too old to enjoy them, as if people in their fifties are old these days.”

“Mom keeps telling me fifty is the new thirty.”

“Yeah, well, Miss Nancy says seventy is the same drag it’s always been.”

“What’s it like to have gone to college for so many years that you know everybody on campus?”

“It’s the same as any other job after a dozen years or so, it’s just that I pay them instead of them paying me. When I wouldn’t go away after my first Ph.D., they started asking me to be a guest lecturer, and then to stand in when the history department needed short-term coverage. Doing those two things built my dubious reputation as a subject matter expert and allowed me to build a résumé. Now I can shop myself out to other universities when they have to fill some empty space in the curriculum and I want a free trip to visit a new city. I’ve got everybody fooled into thinking I know what I’m doing.”

“Cullen, why do you sell yourself short by making light of your talent?”

“It’s just easier to make a joke than to be one. I think it’s the birth-order curse of being born number three of four.”

“Well, kindly leave the doubts at home when you come to class, because the students believe you’re number one.”

“Including you?”

“Including me.” Sarah touched his sleeve lightly, to ensure he took her seriously.