I was at my daughter's house. It was springtime, and I was out in the backyard playing with her dog. Her husband had come home from work, and was changing clothes in a different part of the house.
I found myself getting thirsty, so I went inside to get a drink of something cool. As I get inside, my daughter comes down the stairs, beaming. "Daddy", she says, "guess what?"
"I dunno. What's up?"
"I'm gonna have a baby. The due date is the 27th of May. You're gonna be a Paw-Paw. Aren't you excited? I am sooooo excited."
I stand there for a few beats. I wasn't trying to rush this moment, but now it's here. I thought back to my own maternal grandfather, one of the greatest men I've ever known. He wasn't famous. He didn't have a glamorous job. What he did was take care of his wife and his daughter (who turned out to be my mom). I found myself wondering if I could mean to that baby what my grandfather meant to me.
Soon, I found myself outside standing next to my son-in-law's car. It was a Hummer H3, gold-plated. It was the shiniest car I'd ever seen. It had some kind of lift kit, to where the windows were a few inches above my eyes (and I'm a pretty tall guy). Bolted to the exterior, driver-side near the back seats, was a fancy studio-control-board style boom box. It wasn't powered up, but I shuddered at the thought of the power and sound that could come out of those massive speakers.
As I was transfixed at the sight of the beast of a vehicle, I could hear muffled sounds. There were people inside the H3, taking about how they wanted to own the car. They didn't have cash, so they were muttering about either bartering for it or perhaps stealing it. I stood there, shaking my head at what I heard.
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