Samuel's Third Birthday: Uncle Marvin Tells All

Source--let the inner animal out

Comfortable in his wheel chair, Great Uncle Marvin sat under the umbrella making balloon animals for the children.  His sister, ‘Nana’ had warned him to be on the look-out for anything at all that might happen.  Samuel’s father, Nathan had been a holy terror and Uncle Marvin had helped corral Little Nate many times.  Yup, Marvin was there, and looking forward to watching Samuel and his little friends.

When asked later about what happened and when, Marvin leaned back in his wheelchair and began.  “Well, I tell ya….Nothin’ was a-tal strange.  Those kids were running and screaming from one thing to ‘nother.  I made lots of crowns for the little girls, swords for those boys.  Nope, that was all goin’ just fine.”

Uncle Marvin chuckled, “Ya know, it started with the little girls and their high-pitched screaming.  Had to turn my hearing aid down.  They was running in a big clump from one end to ‘other, screaming like nobody’s biz’ness.  That one girl, Clarisse, oh Lordy! She has a mighty set of lungs.”

“Then the boys, they all headed to the jumpy house thing, that castle.  They was jumpin’ for all they’s worth.  Then they got it rockin’ side to side.  That was when some of those patches blew, and the air hissed out.”

That young man, Jason, well, he jumped into the castle and started pulling and throwin’ all those little boys out.  Then he came out holding a diaper at arms’ length.  And, it was one loaded diaper, too. Said something about the boys had been peeing all over the inside.  That Jason, he started gagging, but he got his two helpers to unplug the fan and start deflating the castle thing.”

Samuel meets Cowboy Bob

Dreams

When Robert Lewis Sherman was a child with wide-open eyes, he knew this: He would be a cowboy named “Cheyenne”, spit whenever he felt like it, and wear a Stetson low on his brow.  He would gnaw on a tooth-pick, kick doors open, and drink strong bitter coffee.

When he turned 21, his eyes were mere slits and he trusted no one, believed in no one, and growled at everyone.  Robert “Bad Man” graduated from Berkeley with great expectations.

Now Robert “Loner” Sherman worked at a Wal-Mart at the Optical department where he was an optometrist, a surprise to his family and especially to himself.  

The only connection he had now to his cowboy dream was a pony named “Shaggy” he had adopted and kept stabled at a nearby ranch.  

 His Saturdays were spent in two ways:  grooming Shaggy, and/or making extra cash at kids’ birthday parties as “Cowboy Bob” with his wily pony whose stage name was “Thunder”. 

Oddly, those were the happiest hours of his endlessly mind-numbing days.

Then came Samuel and his damned third birthday…