hola sf/joe,

Gosh, the first and truest word that comes to mind is 'poignant' - a quietly pulling poignancy - that you've captured here in such a lovely manner ...

The way I read it, he isn't necessarily speaking the last two lines - rather, they're just as likely the thoughts in his head which the tousling of the boy's hair* means to impart ... without words ...

Very nice, Joe,

z

* interesting realization about "tousle" ... While technically "his hair" might mean the narrator's own here, to my mind, we don't ever "tousle" our own hair, only someone else's (well, now that i'm thinking about it ... for the first time - at least I think I personally limit "tousle" in this way) - so it's that verb choice as much as anything that gave me a clear sense of this one, singular point of physical contact between them - which contributed, for me, to the sense of poignancy...