3rd Person M/F fiction, family life father, mother and boy.
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (Canadian - West) North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
He didn't look forward to an evening spent in the company of a bunch of professional fathers who were real pals to their sons. He had seen them making a nuisance of themselves, unable or unwilling to let their kids lead their own lives. They went swimming with their Children, tried to umpire their ball games and wrongly explained the displays at the museum and the animals in the zoo. He wouldn't normally mix with such men, but it was probably a big event for the boy and it only happened once a year. He poured himself a small drink and sat before the TV, set thinking of the coolness between him and his son and trying vainly to pinpoint its beginning. He knew that most of the time he was too preoccupied with other things to pay much heed to the boy's activities. But he had dismissed his misgivings with the thought he's only a 12 year old who wants to be left alone over his drink. He remembered the times he had been too harsh with the boy and the times he had been hurt and impatient and with a feeling of angry revulsion, he remembered siding with the teacher when he had been called into the school to discuss the boy's bad marks in reading. The principal had intimated that the boy's slowness might be caused by tension in the home. But this, he had vehemently denied when the teacher had suggested keeping the boy in the same grade for a second year, he had acquiesced willingly wanting only to get away from the place. The boy had looked up at him, bitten his lower lip and had left the principal's office from then on their distance, one from the other was greater than ever. On the evening of the banquet, he was a little late getting home, having stopped in for a few drinks with a customer who was buying an industrial site. He ate, warmed over supper by himself insisting all the while to his wife that there was no use eating when he was going to a banquet, you'd better eat. She said you've got to be at your best tonight. I'll be at my best. Don't worry, I've had a couple of drinks with a customer and you're ready to shove me in an institution after he had bathed and shaved. He put on his best suit though. He had only contempt for scout masters. He was anxious to create a good impression for the sake of the boy, his suits were getting tight as were the collars of his shirts. It was sitting at a desk all day, did it and not walking anywhere anymore. At the end of the war, he had been lean and tough, but now he was middle aged fat with his hair thinning fast on top. He went downstairs and waited in the living room for the boy, the food his wife had pushed on him, had destroyed the glow from the predinner drinks. So he poured himself a tall one for the road from upstairs came the sound of his wife and son having their usual spat about the boy combing his hair though his wife and Children quarreled often. There was no tension between them at all. The boy came down wearing a pair of flannels and a blazer. Where's your scout uniform? Johnny, he asked, we don't have to wear it if we don't want to. The boy said, I bet most of the other kids will be wearing bears. The little boy shrugged. His wife said, leave him alone, John. The reason he isn't wearing his uniform is that he only has half of it. He couldn't remember how the boy had been dressed on scout night. Why hasn't he got the whole thing? He asked his wife angrily. We're not on the welfare. Are we surely we could spend a few dollars to complete a scout uniform? Yes. But after you bought him the hockey pads and the rifle last Christmas, he was afraid to ask you for anything else. He has the pants belt and shirt and all he needs is the Neckar Chief. Afraid to ask me. That's all I hear around this place. What's the matter with this family anyway. God knows what the neighbors must think of me.