Olivia takes the tiger from my hands and offers me a big smile. “This is adorable. Thank you, Rooney.” She leans over to pick up a rust-colored cat and lifts his paw as though he’s waving to us. “This is Pinot.”
I proceed to talk to Pinot as though he, too, can understand words.
“Thanks for bringing objects,” Olivia says to us. “We thought this tradition was really special but wanted to incorporate everyone more by having them bring items that are meaningful to them.”
“I wouldn’t be mad, though, if June picked a calculator,” Bennett says, bouncing his daughter in his arms. She blinks up at us through brown eyelashes, her cheeks wide in a huge smile.
Pinot jumps out of Olivia’s arms when Olivia looks up at Bennett, her eyebrows raised. “What would you be mad at her picking?”
Bennett thinks for a moment. “I guess nothing. Because whatever she picks will be perfect, isn’t that right, June?” He boops her nose with his.
“Exactly. She’ll pick what she wants, but preferably she chooses the Chinese zodiac chart,” Olivia says playfully. She wraps her arm around Bennett’s waist and leans in to brush wispy hairs off June’s forehead.
“So you both teach kids about STEM?” I ask, looking between Jack and Bennett.
Bennett gently bounces June as he speaks, swaying side to side to the music lightly playing in the background. From small speakers in the corner of the room, Ella Fitzgerald sings about the moon.
“Every month we get together at Griffith Observatory. The kids call Jack the Star Guy,” Bennett says. “It’s sweet.”
A blush spreads from Jack’s cheeks to the tips of his ears.
“How adorable,” I say.
“And it’s not only because he has this shirt that’s covered in glow-in-the-dark stars,” Bennett elaborates. “This guy’s great at breaking down complex topics and making it interesting for these kids. Supernovas, black holes, weather on other planets, you name it. Did you know that, on Mars, sunsets are blue?”
I look up at Jack, and though his expression is neutral, his eyes are creased upward.
“That sounds beautiful,” I say.
Guests approach with objects in hand, trying to get Olivia and Bennett’s attention. Olivia accepts some objects, redirecting people when her arms are full. “We have to go get everything set up,” she says. “Nice to meet you, Rooney. See you, Jack.”
As she and Bennett move to the center of the living room, Jack leans closer to me. “Explain to me what this is again? I think I remember Gong Gong talking about wishing my parents had done one for me. But I can’t remember specifics.”
“It’s a Chinese traditional ritual called zhua zhou. When children turn one, they pick one item from a variety of objects in front of them,” I say, watching as Olivia and Bennett try to figure out how to organize the objects.
“To play with, or?” Jack asks.
“The idea is that what June picks will determine her future, what she’ll be when she grows up. The calculator represents numbers and accounting, something entrepreneurial maybe. If June picks the pencil, maybe she’ll be a writer or lawyer. The tennis ball could mean she’ll be an athlete or coach. The keyboard for a software engineer, maybe. The apple for a chef, toy stethoscope for a doctor, building blocks for an architect. Your rocket plush for a systems engineer. And they included the phone, which for them probably represents the Lunar Love app. It’s all slightly interpretive.”
There’s a trace of a smile at Jack’s lips. “How symbolic.”
I nudge him with my shoulder. “So your Gong Gong wanted you to do this, but your parents didn’t. Why?”
“They already knew what they wanted me to be,” he says.
After Olivia lines up an array of items, June is placed in a sitting position on a pink fuzzy blanket two feet away. She’ll crawl to whichever object she’s destined for.
“Thanks, everyone, for coming!” Olivia says, speaking loudly so we can all hear her from her kneeling position. Guests are sitting in the chairs and couches in the living room, with many of us standing behind the furniture to catch a glimpse of fate at its finest.
“We have so many wonderful items here. We eliminated duplicates of things like stethoscopes, calculators—two of which came from Bennett—and piggy banks. Everything you see came from someone here, except for this,” Olivia explains, holding up a tomato pin cushion. “This has been in Lunar Love’s lost and found for years now, which I thought added a fun element of surprise.”
Next to me, I feel Jack straighten his posture. He watches where Olivia places the object and looks over at me. “We need that pin cushion,” he whispers. “That’s it. For the test.”
“Sometimes,” Olivia continues, “we don’t realize we’re lost in something we believe in so deeply, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t be found.” She looks up at Bennett and smiles. His whole face lights up looking at her. I’m intrigued by their connection and the love between them. They’re stringmates, no doubt about it. The tingling sensation in my fingertips returns, a little more noticeable this time.
“How did Olivia and Bennett meet?” I whisper to Jack.
He steps even closer to me to answer, and I catch a whiff of his signature clove and forest scent. “I’ll tell you later. It’s a long story and involves a bet.”
