the same person as Everett in real life, because Everett only knew how to be himself. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, and he wasn’t flexing in front of Teddy, making sure she knew how important he was, the way Richard had when he was with his doctor friends.
“I am! What’s your name?” Everett asked, getting down on one knee.
“Nathan,” said the kid. “I didn’t know you came to the park. I thought you stayed in your house on the TV.”
Everett didn’t even laugh; instead, he nodded and said, “I love coming to the park! The house you see on the television is just my TV house, where we can all hang out during the show. I live in a real home, just like you.”
Nathan nodded, and that was when Teddy noticed the visibly flustered woman standing behind him.
“Oh, wow, this is . . . like a celebrity sighting!” she said with a laugh. “We watch your show every day!”
“Thank you!” Everett said, standing up. “It’s so nice to meet you both!”
“Oh,” the mom said with a shocked exhalation, “you are . . . tall. You can’t tell that on TV.”
“Nathan,” Everett said, focusing on the boy, “I’m glad you’re wearing a helmet on your scooter. Gotta keep that big brain safe, right?”
“That’s what Mom says,” Nathan agreed.
“Well, your mom’s a smart woman,” Everett said, and Teddy could swear the woman looked like she was about to faint.
“Okay,” Nathan said, losing interest. “We’re gonna go get hot chocolate. I’ll see you in your TV house.”
“Bye, Nathan!” Everett said, waving as the boy scooted away. He nodded at Nathan’s mom, who tucked her hair behind her ears and stealthily looked Everett up and down.
“Uh, wow,” Teddy said once they were out of earshot.
“What?” Everett asked, taking her hand again.
“I never thought I’d see a message board mom come to life,” Teddy said, shaking her head in wonder.
Everett frowned. “Really? All she said was that I was tall. That’s an indisputable fact.”
“It was the way she said it,” Teddy said. “There was a lot of subtext in that indisputable fact. What she said was ‘You’re tall,’ but the unspoken part was ‘like a tree I’d love to climb.’”
Everett threw his head back and laughed, that unselfconscious, unbridled laugh that made Teddy’s whole body shimmer like a disco ball. “That was not what I heard. I think this one might be on you. You might just have an incredibly dirty mind, assigning sexual-tree subtext to a woman who was simply noting my height.”
Teddy shrugged. “All I’m saying is, maybe next time you ought to play to your mom audience a bit more when you meet a fan. Shake her hand. Compliment her hair. Give her one of those Everett St. James smiles.”
They stopped walking and sat down on a bench by the pond, where they could watch the elephants on the fountain shoot water out of their trunks. “Teddy, are you suggesting that my success is merely a product of my devastating good looks and not a combination of talent and hard work?”
“Yes.” Teddy nodded. “You’re all style, no substance. But what can I say? It makes me feel good to have some eye candy on my arm.”
Everett laughed.
“Okay, can I be serious for a second?” Teddy asked.
“Thank you for admitting you weren’t being serious before,” Everett said. “I think my feelings were about to get hurt.”
“How often does that happen?”
“You mean, getting recognized?”
Teddy nodded.
Everett shook his head. “Not every day or anything. Most people I run into over the course of the day don’t watch local children’s television, you know? But every once in a while, a kid knows who I am.”
“Wow,” Teddy said. “That must make you feel amazing, to have someone run up to you just to tell you that you’re awesome.”
Everett shook his head. “Believe it or not, children usually don’t tell me I’m awesome. Most of the time they want to tell me long, involved stories about their pets or their imaginary friends. And anyway, I don’t want them to tell me I’m awesome. That’s not the point of doing the show.”
“What is the point of doing the show, then?” Teddy asked.
“I think . . . ,” Everett said, staring at the water. “I think we all have a calling. I know that sounds like I’m speaking from a spiritual place, and you can look at it that way, but that’s not what I mean. I just think that all of us have a way we can best