where'd he go?

He wore his cap pushed back on his head.  In North America, he might have been called "Buckteeth" because his two front teeth protruded quite far and were crooked.

He was always in uniform, and he ALWAYS smiled.

He was a gate guard. Possibly my favourite.  Every time he saw me, he grinned, looked right at me and said, in very careful English, "Good mawning"  Or "Good aftenoon" Or "Good e-venn-ing" "How are you?"

To which I'd respond with some variation of "Fine thanks" or "I'm well, thanks.  How are you?"

And inevitably he'd say, "Fine, sank you, and you?"

(note: No, I haven't gone crazy; the spelling mistakes are intentional; they're meant to reflect his pronunciation).

I've since learned that this seems to be a standard dialogue that kids here learn.  That, and oftentimes they learn "How do you do?" What, did the curriculum writer have an obsession with My Fair Lady? 

Come to think of it, that's not a terrible obsession. There are worse ones...

I remember one time when my guard - along with all the other guards - was going through the daily PM pep talk.  

Wait, I should probably explain what this is.  Or what I think it is, based on my observation.  

Every day, around ... 4 or 5, all the guards stand in line outside my building.  Probably because it's so far from both gates (Not only do I live on the sixth floor of an elevator-less building, but I also live in the building that is the furthest from both gates. Yay). An official-looking man stands in front of them and talks to them about ...

Well, I have no idea.  But it looks important. 

At any rate,  my guard was in line with all the other guards, listening to this important man talk about something that looks important.  I watched them from a distance, and MY guard looked at me, and his face broke out into a smile.

Of course, I smiled back.

And ... I just realized today that I haven't seen that guard in months.  The most exciting things that happen now are a) I get saluted or b) a guard jabbers at me in Chinese in an attempt to make conversation and I understand maybe a quarter of what he says.

I miss my guard, his crooked smile and his attempt to speak in English. He was sweet.

I gotta admit, though, getting saluted is pretty cool. Makes me feel important.