An Evening's Entertainment

Father walked in the door and set down

A pile of books,

A ring of keys,

An I.D. card,

Two pens,

A crumpled pocketful of receipts,

A well-worn wallet,

Assorted coins,

An old watch,

And a slightly twisted pair of sunglasses

On the kitchen counter.

He sat in a chair and sighed.

Two children, ages four and six, stared up at him,

Wide brown eyes looking up from downward tilted brows.

"Today?" Sister asked, as Father slowly slid his shoes

Off his feet and onto the kitchen floor. He lifted his watch

And sighed again. "Tomorrow", he said, with a sad wink. "We

Shall have our evening's entertainment."

"Today, what we need is our rest."

"Come on, lets play in the back yard" said Brother, leading

Sister slowly, sadly, and with great ceremony out the

Back door as Father slumped further in his chair and looked

Hopefully toward the stove in search of dinner remains.

"Tomorrow indeed", he said softly to himself."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The children came home from school and Grandma said,

"There will be no dinner for you tonight, Father says. "

"Have we been bad?" Brother asked. "I have no idea." she replied.

They looked at each other, heads shaking slowly in denial.

So they waited.

Father walked in the door and set down

A pile of books,

An I.D. card,

Three pens,

A broken pencil,

A crumpled pocketful of receipts,

An old watch,

A rolled-up parking ticket,

And a slightly twisted pair of sunglasses

On the kitchen counter.

Across his face a smile broke, like a door opening slowly

Revealing a widening crack of light into a darkened room.

"Today", he said, "is tomorrow. Let us go."

They piled into the back of his old blue car,

Brother helping Sister with her seatbelt.

"Ready?" he asked. "Ready." they answered.

"Where are we going?" Sister asked.

"Many places." He replied.

They went to the park

In the trunk of the car was a basket of food,

A kite, a ball and a pile of paper airplanes,

And a crumpled brown bag of old bread.

They ate and they drank.

They threw things and caught things and flew things.

They slid on the slides and swung on the swings,

They ran,

And drank some more,

And filled two happy hours.

Then piled back into the car,

And drove to the pond and fed ducks and geese with torn-up bits of bread

And when the large geese hissed and came too close

Father lifted the boy and girl to the top of the car

Where they commanded a view and could decide which duckling or gosling to favor

And watch the golden fish race beneath the water to snap up the crumbs

Until the brown bag was empty.

Then piled into the car

And drove to a place for miniature golf

Where they spent another hour rolling and knocking and throwing

Small colored golf balls

Under windmills, through miniature schools, between houses,

And down the throat of a purple whale

Who did not mind a bit.

Then piled into the car

And drove to a place for ice cream,

Whose proprieter knew that good ice cream should taste like

Rasberries and turn your tongue a brilliant shade of blue.

And they ate the ice cream and compared tongues and decided

Next time they should find some green ice cream and see what

It tasted like.

Then piled into the car

And drove through the countryside with the windows rolled down,

Tracing unending lines in the passing air with their fingers

And listening to the passing buzz and clicks of locust, cicada and cricket,

And the darkening shapes of horses and cattle grazing

Near fencelines along the roadsides as the sun

Sat lower and everything grew dark.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Father walked in slowly through the door,

Carrying two sleeping passengers.

"We have had our evening's entertainment" he said to mother,

Reading the paper under the halo of a golden lamp.

"And we are very ready for our night's rest."

He deposited two limp forms into their two small beds,

And walked slowly, yawning and stretching, to his own.

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