“Did you know….” Claire suddenly announced after a brief period of intense silence, her face almost bursting with excitement. “That Claire is an anagram of eclair!”
“Yes,” said Tina, not even looking up from her phone.
“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious,” said Ethel, actually pointedly looking up for a second so she could look back down at her phone simply to show how unimpressed she was. “You just moved the e from the back of your name to the front.”
“I did not!” said Claire.
“Yes you did,” said Tina and Ethel simultaneously together in perfect unison.
“Well okay I did,” Claire admitted. “How else would I have done it? And you’re both just jealous because my name is an anagram and your names aren’t.”
“They are,” said Tina.
“Not any words I’ve ever heard of,” said Claire. “So they don’t count. Especially not Lethe. Or anti.”
“Wait, did you just look all these up on your phone?” asked Tina.
“Well, yeah,” Claire said. “How else would I have known?”
“Do you even know what an eclair is?” Ethel asked.
“Of course I know what an eclair is!” Claire said, without elaborating, verifying, or confirming her claim.
“It’s like an email, but for Claires!” said Daniel, emerging just in time for the punchline.
“Shut up, Daniel,” Claire said, with a finality that sent everyone went back to their phones, until several minutes of intense silence later, Claire looked up, her face almost bursting with excitement, and suddenly said “Did you know…?”
(They did know.)
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Notes:
1. Written in October 2025
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