Rockbottom

One day, not all that long ago, Scooter, while out shopping with his mom, noticed a very beautiful parked car.  Up until this point in his life Scooter had not paid any attention to cars at all.  For one thing he was just a little boy and driving a car had never occurred to him.  His entire world had been build from Lego's and most recently playing simple computer games on his sister’s computer.

This car, however, had captured his attention.  It was as if someone had parked it there just for him to see.  The color of it seemed deep, almost magical and its design oozed speed. In Scooter’s mind he could see it racing along the computerized road that he had seen on the computer screen and traveling 1000 miles per hour no doubt.

Scooter wanted it.  He was so dazzled in fact that he was unconsciously squeezing his Mother’s hand.  She stopped walking and looked down at him.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

Scooter looked up at his mom.  “We need to talk.”

They had lunch upstairs in the department store cafeteria.  Their conversation was serious and quite detailed as mom explained about growing up and getting an education so an employer would hire him.  Then she explained about having a job, saving and building good credit.  Scooter hung on every word.  By the time the waitress had delivered their apple pie Scooter was trying hard to figure how long all of that schooling and working and saving was going to take.

His mental calculations were getting jumbled as he had no real reference for any of it and his facial expression began to show despair.

“I thought this would be easier.” he said, and set his fork down, ignoring the rest of his pie.

Driving home from the mall his mother was going over their conversation in her mind.  She was feeling bad about being so realistic in responding to her son’s excitement over the sports car.

Occasionally she glanced over at Scooter.  He was just sitting quietly staring out the side window but she could tell he was very disappointed.  She was wishing she could turn the clock back, she wanted a do-over, she wanted to just share in his excitement and let him continue to think about all of the possibilities.

As she pulled into their driveway her daughter Samantha stood waiting for her.  She did not look happy.  Right when her Mother opened the car door Sam started in.  “You were supposed to take ME to the mall.  Why didn’t you wait for me, I told you I wanted to go. I want to buy some Riverbed Sneakers.  I showed you the ad.  The sale ends tomorrow.  Stupid Scooter didn’t need to go.”

Her mother didn’t respond, she was watching Scooter walk to the house and disappear inside.  She felt awful.  She turned and faced Sammy, who was still jabbering about buying shoes.  She wanted to be understanding and supportive.  She didn’t ever want to make the same mistake but Samantha was older and was being way too pushy for someone asking for a favor.

“I’m sorry dear, but how many pairs of shoes do you have in your closet?”

“But Mom…”

As she finished getting out of the car with all her packages, she handed one of them to Sam.  “Put these away for me will you please?”

Samantha reluctantly took the bag and on her way to the side door she opened it and peeked in.  The box on the inside said Manufactured by: Rockbottom.  Riverbed Sneakers Size 61/2

Sam let out a shriek and spun around to hug her mom.

A smile came to her mom’s face as she knew she had gotten at least one thing right today.

 

 

 

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