So last night my husband and I introduced our elder son to The Matrix in all its leather-clad, martial-arts-fighting, gun-toting glory. We of course were careful to explain how all the special effects were done, because he has an odd tendency to watch an entire obviously fantastical movie and then ask if it was real. I can't decide if he's doing that to test us to see if we know what's fantasy and what's reality, or if he genuinely thinks some of it might be true.
He also has a strong tendency to ask questions throughout the entire movie. Things that have no relevance at all to what's going on, like, "Why'd he decide to wear that today?" and more annoying things like, "What happens next???" Dude, that's why the movie isn't over yet....so you can find out what happens next. Stop talking and watch!
My elder son is an extremely verbal person. He's always talking unless his nose is in a book, at which point you have to hold a bullhorn to his ear and shout his name five times before he'll blink and look up. He got the bookworm thing from me. The endless talking? I have no idea. For the most part his questions and comments are smart and right to the point. His teachers love talking with him, they've told me. But get him going on a favorite subject like video games or movies and you'll be lucky if he lets you get a single word in edgewise.
He has high-functioning Asperger's according to the children's hospital in Michigan, which explains the concentrations on his favorites like video games and movies, and his sometimes oblivious response to others who are supposed to be able to contribute to the conversation. It's probably why he'll talk endlessly through a movie, and just when you thought he's missed something he'll re-tell the entire movie to you scene by scene without missing the fact that Agent Smith's cool-looking glasses got a lens knocked askew in one of the dozens of fights, or that Neo got a crispy cookie from the Oracle, even after he broke her vase.
This kid is going to be great at public speaking; we just have to find him something he loves to speak about, wind him up, and let him go. With the curiousity he displays about everything I would be glad, as Morpheus says, to follow him down the rabbit hole and see where it goes.
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