Footnote

The Boy is eight years old. He'll be nine in January.

Alex: Right, today at school, the teacher read part of a story then just stopped. And she said we had to write the rest of the story, but that we weren't allowed to write about anything that was violent. We had to describe how people were feeling.

Shane: Mm.

Alex: But I said to her, 'Well, Miss, this story might have to have a little violence in it, because my new character is going to be a boxer.' She laughed at that.

Shane: Good. Laughing is good.

Alex: Mm. But then, I asked her, 'Is it ok if I use footnotes?' And she laughed! I mean, what's funny about that?!

Shane: Did she say anything?

Alex: She asked how I knew about footnotes, so I told her. She said it would be fine.

Shane: That's good. I think there's a lot of adults who wouldn't know about footnotes, so she was probably surprised more than anything.

Alex: Mm.

Shane: Mm.

Alex: You know with footnotes, do you always have to start with number 1.

Shane: Yeah. Some people start from number one on each new page that has a footnote - one, one, one two, one, one two three, one, and so on, others will keep going up by one regardless of the page - one, two, three, la la la.

Alex: Mm. I only had one footnote.

Shane: That's fine. You only needed one footnote.

Alex: Mm.

Shane: Mm.