We flew down to Florida Friday afternoon, on a Southwest flight to Tampa. While waiting to board, SteelyKid of course struck up a conversation with basically everybody in the vicinity, but mostly an older Asian woman who was behind us.
That woman also ended up in the seat directly behind SteelyKid. As this was a window seat, there was a good deal of space between the seat and the window, so while we waited to take off, SteelyKid carried on cheerful conversations with both The Pip iun the row ahead of us, and the woman from the boarding line in the seat behind. I didn't pay all that much attention to the latter, because the plane was boarding, but the bits I caught were partly about SteelyKid's ancestry-- she explained that Mommy was born in Korea, but doesn't speak Korean (though SteelyKid can count to ten in Korean, thanks to her taekwondo classes). They chattered happily back and forth for a while-- with occasional updates from SteelyKid to me: "I'm talking to my friend behind us!"-- and then it was time for taxi and take-off, and SteelyKid got out her tablet and watched cartoons.
When the plane landed, and we started gathering stuff, SteelyKid stood up, and there was a $20 bill on her seat. "Where did that come from?" I asked. "Oh, my friend gave it to me!" she said, pointing to the woman behind us.
"Your daughter is very smart and charming," said the woman. "Well, um, thank you very much." I managed. "She does keep us on our toes..."
So, not only does SteelyKid know how to work a crowd, she's already adept at attracting campaign donations. She's going to end up running everything one of these days...