Details Part 1

I noticed the imbalanced demographics of the flight right away: students outnumbered regular joes at least 3:1. I'd only seen more Y shirts that weekend of NSO. I have to admit, there were a few guys I was hoping to sit next to, and the one I ended up sitting by wasn't a disappointment. We sat there for a few seconds in silence (I was debating whether or not to sleep or converse, and if the latter, whether or not I would instigate the conversation or wait for him), then heard the announcement that our flight would be delayed for at least 45 minutes. The bad weather made my decision for me. "So where are you heading?" I asked, smiling. "Sawlt Lake. Er..uhhwul ackshully Sa-uh-ndy," he drawled. (I did my best to transpose his Utah accent... from here on out, just remember that his comments were all made with thick sawdusty pronounciations). "Ah. Cool. Lived there long?" "Nope, actually just moved there uhh... las week or so fore I left." "Left?" "I went to South Dakota for these past three days." "Oh! How fun! I've never been to South Dakota. Were you visiting family? Friends?" "Jus some friends..." "Oh cool. Did you have a good visit?" "Yah. It was lots of fun." "So where did you live before Sandy?" "Southern Utah round'abouts." "Really! I used to live in Page, Arizona - it's by Lake Powell, only about 5 minutes from the Utah border, so I'm sort of familiar with Southern Utah... what part did you live in exactly?" "Sorta round St. George? Uhh. Was this town called Colorado City." "Oh! Yeah, I've driven through there a few times. It was on the way from Page to St. George." "Yah." "I think we only stopped once - to get some really delicious cheese curds." "Oh, er yeah. That'd be the [Insert unremembered name of the dairy farm here] place. They've only got 4o or 50 head uh cattle. They're probably the smallest dairy farm I ever worked fer." "I know absolutely nothing about cattle farms. I used to live near one though... in Manti, UT?" "You lived in Manti? I got an uncle up there. His name's LaVern Johnson. Heard of him?" "No, I can't say that I have... So have you worked at a lot of cattle farms then?" "Nah. Mainly construction." Here there was a pause in the conversation. I restarted it: "So is Colorado City the only place you've lived, then?" "Well, sorta. I lived in what's that town called... Spanish Fork I think while my father was going to school. He does pharmaceutics." "Ahh." I smiled at him. There was another pause. A few seconds/moments later he asked, very hushed, "Are you a Mormon?" I was a bit startled, as can be imagined, but I answered with a laugh and a "Yeah!" "I thought so... yer jus so nice. I've met alotta nice people who were Mormons, even if other people try to say bad things about them alla the time." I laughed as a response (from here on out: Laughing as a response will be referred to as "Laar"). "I saw your face when I said I was from Colorado City, an I bet you think I'm a polyg-kid or somthing..." Laar, "Well--er--" "No, it's alright. I can't say that I'm not. I have 31 brothers and sisters. Let's see, uh, 20 brothers, 12 sisters. I bet you thought you had a big family!" Laar. Laar. Laar. "So how old are you?" "I am 17." "NUH-UH! Really? I thought you were like, 23 or something." "I'll be 18 in February." "Oh? What day?" "The 18th." "So what's your last name?" "Chapman." "Chapman... I think I know some Chapmans. But yeah, people always think I'm older than I really am, too." He said this in a manner which made not asking him how old he was impolite. So, always the not rude one, I asked. "So how old are you, then?" "18. I'll be 19 in August. So where do you live anyway?" "I live in Provo - I'm going to BYU." "Ah, are you now? Yeah... I wanted to get me ad edgycation, but I dunno." "Are you thinking of going back to school or something?" "Well, my father -- what does your dad do?" "He's a doctor." "Oh yeah! One of - wait, no - two of my moms are EMT's. And [counting on fingers, blue eyes raised upward] 12 of my sisters. With my father being a pharmicist and everything we were well off, but we still had to work cause there were so many of us, see." "Aahh. So what about your father?" "Oh yeah. He was always reeeeaaal big into math uh a mathematics (every time he said "mathematics," it was this way. no idea why.) and chemistry and all that stuff." "Oh. Very cool. Makes sense." Apparently this was very funny, for he laughed for a few seconds afterward. When he recovered, he said: