The Smallest Moment
Brenda played the stay at home mom bit, but in reality she
was a bit of a trophy wife that sort of looked after her husband’s kid. She was a star in volleyball at collage
and her legs got her invited to the right kind of parties to date rich
men. She played her cards well and
now she has the beautiful house, hardwood floors, granite countertops, and the
life of leaser that she believes she deserves.
Jon does well at school, doesn’t
get into trouble, and always wants to please… even if he seems to be a bit of a
nerd. Brenda knows that if he was
her biological son, he would definitely not be such a nerd, but that can’t be
helped. As much as she would like
a child of her own, it is better this way as she is approaching thirty now and
a child could totally ruin her body and that just can’t happen!
Her husband, older than her by ten
years, is a VP in marketing for an automotive parts manufacture. Not that he knows the first thing about
cars, but he did well enough at the B-school to get a good starting job and is
ambitious and status conscience enough to make his way up fairly quickly. In actuality, he is pretty good at
developing talent of the people that work for him but his one flaw is that he
never recognizes talent or a good original idea until someone points it out for
him. After that he can take it and
do amazing things.
Jon comes home from school
carrying an oversized piece of paper very carefully. He doesn’t want it to get
folded or crumpled up in his backpack so the whole way home on the bus he kept
it in his hand, making sure nothing happened to it. It is a drawing of a skeleton that he had made in art
class. The assignment had been to
make a still life… but behind the still life in the classroom had been a
medical skeleton so he drew that instead.
The drawing would have been impressive had it been done by a trained
illustrator let alone an eight year old boy.
Paperclipped to the picture was a
note from Jon’s art teacher. “Jon
is an absolutely amazing artist! I
have never in 40 years of teaching seen someone with such an eye for detail and
the ability to put it to paper as well as your son. I would like to submit this in the state art fair next month
but I wanted you to get to see it before I sent it off as sometimes the art is
not returned. Truly AMAZING!
–Edith Nellis.”
After setting the picture and note
on the kitchen counter, Jon went excitedly to find someone to show! Brenda soon came into the kitchen just
home from yoga. Not noticing what
was on the slightly cluttered counter, she set her starbucks coffee and muffin
down on the picture as she texted on her iphone 5. As luck would have it, just as Jon came back in the room she
picked up both her coffee and muffin and set them down closer to the sink.
“Hey Brenda! Look at this!” he said excitedly as he pointed to the picture sitting on the counter.
Looking up from her phone, Brenda
glanced at the picture.
“Ooooh! Very scary! Did you draw it at school?” then when back to texting.
“Look at the note from Mrs
Nellis!”
Again she looked up, saw that
there was a note clipped to the picture… “yes, put it on the frig so your
father can see it in a few days when he gets home.”
A little disappointed that she
didn’t read the note, Jon put them up together on the refrigerator with magnets
so his father would see it. The
front of the refrigerator was stainless steel so magnets didn’t work there, but
for some reason they worked fine on the side so that became the family bulletin
board.
“I am going out for a few hours,
be good for Maria. She will feed
you dinner. Do your homework
before you watch TV,” Brenda felt good about the last comment, made her feel
like a responsible mother… though she knew he probably would have anyway and it
wouldn’t even occur to her to check if he had. Second graders don’t get any homework anyway…
Jon sat down at the kitchen
counter and started doodling in the corners of the newspaper. Happy thoughts going through his head
about what his father might say when he showed him the note from his teacher.
About an hour later, Brenda came
back into the kitchen dressed like she had stepped out of Banana Republic
window display. “Where is this new place Jen wants us to meet at tonight?” she
said into her iphone? “no, you
shouldn’t text and drive, just tell me the address and I’ll write it down.”
She moved about the kitchen
opening drawers and closing them…
“I even forgot what book we are
supposed to be reading, Hahah!” she laughed, holding the phone with her
sholder. “As long as Lisa isn’t
there, no one will even notice.”
Closing the last drawer with a pen
in hand, she spun around and plucked a piece of paper off the side of the
fridge. Folding it in half to give
herself a clean white area to write on, she started taking down directions from
the phone.
“OH! This is just where the old Zink used to be!?” she stopped
writing. “Well, then I don’t need directions to that. I’ll see you soon!
Bye bye.”
Looking at the unneeded
directions, she carelessly folded it over again, popped open the trash
compactor, and dropped the paper in.
Glancing around the counter, she picked up her mostly empty starbucks
cup and half eaten muffin and dropped them in as well. With the toe of her pump, she pressed
the trash compactor closed and pressed the “COMPACT” button. After a few moments of clicking the
motor began whirring with the gratifying sound of the trash crunching. With her domestic duties satisfyingly
complete, she walked out to her Lexis and never thought of that incident again
for the rest of her life.
The next thing Jon ever drew was a
small bit of a mural in the basement of his frat at Michigan State.
