Birds and bees, ahead of schedule

My four-year-old nephew is sitting on an old butcher's block, and it's pushed up close to my living room table. He's got a bowl of oyster crackers and some colby cheese. My coffee table has lots of shelves, and he's poking around in them. There are coasters, magazines, a back massager, all sorts of things. My mom and a couple of my brothers are all chatting, occasionally answering queries from the nephew about what all this funny stuff is at Aunt Michelle's house. He interrupts us and asks, "What's that?"

I look at what he's pointing to. It's a condom package (unopened) that's been randomly/strategically tossed onto a coffee table shelf. I start laughing. I'm the only one on this side of the table that can see what he's pointing to. I mean, duh, it's obviously something good. Shiny plastic wrapper, bold letters all over it, interesting contents, surely. My brother happily investigates, showing it around. We're all laughing, and nephew joins in. Laughing is fun! He asks, "What's in there?" I'm still cracking up because I don't care at all, and mom says, "I don't know, Simon. Maybe it's candy!" And I say, "Hey Simon, do you like this kind of crackers?" Easily distracted, he says, "Oh yeah!" Thank goodness.