The man in the thick glasses and Astros hat meekly approached me at a bookstore in Houston. By last July, I'd spent seven months fielding questions from all sorts of people about the future. Who will win the World Series in 2020? (The Yankees, I'm afraid.) What stock should I buy? (That of the online retailer named after a certain South American river, I suppose.) What are the Mega Millions numbers? (I wish I knew.)
"When will I have a child?" the man in the Astros cap asked. Those previous queries had always been posed at least half-jokingly, and I thought the man's question had been, too.