Puffer Fish
“What’s Rudy’s story?” I asked MaryJo.

“He’s a puffer fish,” MaryJo said turning toward Rudy and shaking her head. “He blows himself up to look bigger than he is inside. Rudy grew up in his SOB father’s shadow.  He rode Rudy mercilessly trying to toughen him up. Said he had to be tough because enemies were everywhere.  Rudy’s mother died, the father remarried, and Rudy got a stepbrother. The dad thought the stepkid was a god, and the two of them treated Rudy like a dimwitted mascot.  Rudy inherited 49% of his father’s car dealership. His stepbrother got 51%.  You see where this is going?”

“Rudy’s never good enough for the old man, but he inherits his father’s paranoia.  His stepbrother treats him like a joke at work.  Probably the other employees do too.  He has to puff himself up just to feel like he exists.”

“I know he’s annoying, but don’t let him bother you. He’s a puffer fish just trying not to get swallowed up by the world.”

Today I’ll try not to be annoyed by the puffer fish.

2020 Vision ©2017 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com

https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/