Sunday, November 26, 2017

Thursday, February 13th, 2020

Ever Ready
I went Brat Boy’s volleyball game and sat with his girlfriend CharChar.  KC strolled in a few minutes later and sat down next to me.

“I guess you heard the bad news,” KC said.

“Your girlfriend’s pregnant and you want to drop out of school,” I said.

He shook his head. “The really bad news – my dad finished that bottle of cough syrup in three days. It was supposed to last two weeks.”

“That sucks, but no offense, the pregnant-girlfriend-no-job-sketchy-plan thing isn’t great news either.”

 We watched a few points before he said, “Maybe I got myself into this, but I really need my dad and he’s not ready. All those years he stayed clean, he was always ready if I needed him. Now I don’t feel like I can rely on him. To me, that’s the bad news.”

I didn’t know what to say. Maybe someday cancer or an accident or something else I couldn’t control would leave me unready, not able to help.  But, that day I wasn’t going to do something within my control take me out of the game. I wasn’t going to pick up the first drink.

Today I will be ready.

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.

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