Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? No! It’s Batman!

(A classmate is driving me and another girl home. In the car with us is her four-year-old daughter, who saw a shooting star earlier in the evening.)

Daughter: “When we get home, we’re going back out to look for it and see if we can find it!”

Classmate: “I don’t think we will, darling.”

Daughter: “Why not, Mom?”

Classmate: “It probably burnt up.”

Daughter: “Why?”

Me: “Well, shooting stars are rocks from space that fall to the earth. And when they hit where our air is, they move so fast through the air that they catch fire. So they usually burn up before they hit the ground.”

Daughter: “No. I know what it was! I know what it was, Mom!”

Classmate: “What was it?”

Daughter: “It was a superhero!”

Classmate: “Really? Like… Na na na na na na na na—”

Entire Car: “Batman!”

(We laugh.)

Classmate: “That was perfect, but I think it says something about all of us when we knew how to finish the song.”