Ethan Zarinsky

The boy came out of nowhere and latched onto the older man’s arm.

“Ha!  Now I have you!  Your name is mine and my name is yours.  We are switched!”  the child cried in glee, letting go of the arm and jumping backwards.

“What are you talking about?” the older man asked.

“Tell me your name, if you can.”  The boy added a chuckle to his speech.

“My name,” the man said with annoyance, “is Ethan.”

The boy grinned broadly.  “I’ll bet you were expecting to say that your name was–” he cut himself off as the grin dissolved into apparent confusion.  “Your name was Ethan?”

“Yes.”

“Oh no!” The boy’s arms flew to the sky in the most dramatic of fashions.  “I am undone!  My one weakness: Someone who already has that very name which I have at the time that I try to take theirs in exchange for mine!”

The older Ethan watched patiently as the younger one seemed to re-enact every movie villain death scene he had ever watched in grand displays of over-acting, and then fled.

Ethan closed his eyes, took a breath, and continued on his day.