Story: What Do You Want?

Mike turned his head and leaned into the open car window. He could barely hear anything over the traffic.

“What?”

“Don’t forget to ask Tom … you know.” Mike’s wife Pamela moved her eyes over to their son Skip who sat next to her, carefully peeling foil off a Hershey’s candy bar.

Mike doesn’t want to ask Tom if his kid wants to come to Skip’s birthday party. As it is, 20 kids were invited already. They don’t even know Tom and his wife.

“I don’t really know Tom. I only work with him.” Mike shrugs and feels trapped.

“You promised.”

Mike remembers his promise. He promised he’d ask just before they had sex. Mike can’t remember having sex with Pamela without promising something first. It was like a little game.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Mike gave Pamela his sincere smile. The one that showed all four caps that he insisting on getting for professional reasons.

Mike patted the top of the car, leaned down and pointed a finger at his son and frowned, “Any gooey stuff in this car and you are a dead guy!”

Skip giggled and offered his dad a bite of his candy. At 7, Skip was open and generous. Each week two or three neighbors would automatically drop off toys that Skip had given away. Mike brought home a toy a week for Skip.

At first, Pamela thought this was wonderful and generous. Mainly because it was something Mike did on his own. Most times she had to hint for this or that. In a careful way of course. But then all those toys needed to be put somewhere after they filled up Skip’s room.

All those containers and Mike would forget what he got, so Skip had 6 stuffed teddy bears, 11 assorted balls for every sport and 3 giant giraffes. They did not fit in a container and you couldn’t stick a giraffe in a corner for decoration. Pamela did not like things getting out of control.

Mike constantly and politely corrected those who called him a used car salesman. He sold pre-owned cars. He adjusted his left wrist so the rolex could be seen when he said this. Never mind that he saved 3 years for it. The point was, it represented him, his ideals, his ambition.

He would not go without and neither would his family. He promised himself this when Skip was born.

Mike was 13 and he was looking at his tennis shoes. They were cool. He made sure of that. But the clothes were his older brother’s. He looked up as the school bus came to a stop.

“Hey! What’s up.” He held his winning smile as his eyes searched and compared everyone’s clothing. Mike relaxed. He would pass. No one would notice. If anything, he even looked better than some of the rich guys.