Birthday

The hotel lobby was almost empty . It would have been a surprise if it was otherwise. Being in a small town of few hundred people, the hotel mostly saw travelers staying for the night. Despite the chill outside, there was a freshness that the early morning snow brought to the cold air. As I walked in to have a cup of coffee, the only people there were the woman and the child in the children's chair. I poured some coffee (despite everything, coffee has caffeine in it , one of essential nutrients for any academic..so I needed my daily dose in the absence of my tea) , put bread in the toaster and as I waited I couldn't help from overhearing the woman talking to her baby.
Happy birthday girl, happy birthday...she was trying to sing to her. The child clapped her hands and thumped the table. The woman was speaking to her about not being able to have a party because of the long drive they had to take. She was promising the child that they would have a nice dinner that evening. The child too young to understand words, perhaps understood the love in her mother's voice. She was smiling broadly, as I looked towards them.
Despite the concern of being looked at as being impolite for overhearing hearing their words, I turned and asked about her child's age. She told me it was the first birthday of her daughter. I bent down, wished the little girl. She looked at me through her beautiful blue glassy eyes and smiled as I blew air on her face. I held out my hand and grasped it with her little fingers. I spent a few minutes with the baby making some faces much to the amusement of the baby. Then went back to put another bread in toaster ass the previous one had charred.
On the way back to my room, the mother was at the other end of the corridor and the baby was crawling towards her. As I stopped, the baby looked at me and smiled, before crawling back to her mother.
That made my day
@