“The next one who talks loses,” he said.
The backseat became intensely quiet.
“I have deep respect for Asian culture,” he said after a moment.
“Okay,” she said. “Why?”
“Well, for example, this will work for a few minutes, but in Asia when you want some peace you send the kids to paint the fence or sit silently in the corner and you tell them you’re teaching them karate. You invent a whole philosophy to go with it and pair it with athletic training and before you know it your children have grown into peaceable upstanding citizens who can break bricks with their foreheads and catch bullets with chopsticks.”
“Huh,” she said thoughtfully.
He nodded.
“We need a philosophy,” she said.
He spotted a Dairy Queen and turned the wheel.
“Found it,” he said.
None of their children would ever catch bullets with chopsticks, but things turned out okay.
