A Big Hello: Hi-Jinx and Sam's Journey to Finding True Happiness

"This happened a long time ago."

"No way! I don't believe it." said Jinx. "You're lying, man."

Sam sighed. He and Jinx had been eating dinner at The Sandbox for two hours now, and the conversation had really gone off track. "I'm not lying, Jinx," he said slowly. "It's true. This is how I met your mother."

Jinx raised his eyebrows. "What? I thought you met Mama at the bar!"

"Well, yeah, that's true too," Sam said. "But this is how I found out she was pregnant with you."

"I'm not stupid," Jinx said. "I know how babies are made, man! You can't just say something like that and not tell me what happened!"

Sam took a deep breath and folded his hands in front of himself on the table. He looked around at the other diners around them; most of them were looking away from him now. The Sandbox was famous for its great food, but lousy service and even worse atmosphere, which meant it wasn't exactly a hot spot for hip millennials or busy executives on their lunch break. In fact, it was so bad that most people had given up on trying to talk to each other over the loud music and surrounded their tables with laptops or reading material instead.

"Look," Sam said, keeping his voice low so no one could hear him over the noise of the restaurant, "it's not something I like to think about too much anymore. It's not a good memory."

Jinx leaned forward, suddenly intrigued despite himself. He hadn't heard his dad talk about anything personal before—not since his mom had passed away. "So…what happened?" he asked.

Sam took another deep breath and looked down at his hands again. "Well…" he began hesitantly, as if unsure whether he should tell the story or not, "…remember how I used to hang out with my friend Mark a lot?"