He was headed to the hardware store for a new toilet flapper to replace one that perpetually leaked and invited David to come along. Jimmy let David walk the aisles and see if he could find the right part.

“This one!” he yelled, a few steps ahead of Jimmy.

“It looks a lot like that,” Jimmy said. “Same color. But the size is different.”

“Oh yeah, ours is a lot bigger.”

“Look up on the top row,” Jimmy said.

“That one?” David said, pointing.

“I think you’re right.”

“Let me get it,” David said, crawling up on the shelves.

“Hold on, let me hold you up there.”

Jimmy lifted David and he chose the right flapper from the display and beamed as he carried it to the cash register in front.

“Looks like you have a good helper there,” the cashier said.

“The best,” Jimmy said.

When the cashier told him the total for the flapper, David turned. “That much just to fix the toilet?”

In the car, Jimmy explained the ins and outs of supply and demand and how many people were paid in the process of getting the replacement part to the shelf at the store. “There were people at the factory who worked on this. Then there was the person who drove the truck. The owner of the store has employees. We’re not just paying for the flapper, but for all the people involved in getting it to the shelf so we could buy it. Understand?”

David nodded and looked through the plastic bag at the red flapper inside. Then he said something that floored Jimmy.

“Did you know them?”

“Did I know who?”

“The mom who had me. And the dad.”

“Your birth parents?”

David nodded.

Deep breath. Answer the question honestly. But don’t give him more than he asks. That’s what the counselor at the adoption agency had told him. Susan had read the same thing in a book.

“I didn’t know them, David. They lived in another state, a long drive from here.”

“How did they find you?”

David explained that they had contacted the adoption agency and out of all the applications sent, the birth mother had chosen them.

David looked out the window for what seemed an eternity. Then he said, “Does dog food taste good to dogs?”

Another suggestion by the counselor was that if David changed the subject, they should go with him and not try to force anything.

“I don’t know,” Jimmy said. “You want to try some when we get home?”

David turned with a startled look, then smiled.

Two weeks later as they drove home from church, Jimmy suggested they stop at Susan’s favorite restaurant. When they were seated, David had to try the straw trick, pulling the paper down and then getting it wet so that it moved like a worm. With his eyes focused on the table, David said, “Do I look like them?”