A Short Story, Not a Story About Shorts
by Brian Chartier, aka cadiman1
Next week my oldest son is getting married. I sent him away to get an education, he got a diploma and a fiancé. Not sure if that was all-inclusive but hey, he seems happy.
When we settled him into his apartment we gave him dishes and bedding and took him shopping for groceries and essentials. One of things we got him was a box of Tide laundry detergent. We helped him put everything away and left.
A few years later, he was done. I went to his house, had to get him out of bed and then realized that nothing, absolutely nothing was packed or disassembled to go in the van for the drive home. I asked him for boxes and instead got green garbage bags with an explanation that they were more durable and work just as well.
While grabbing and stuffing his belongings into the green garbage bags I came across a box of Tide. He said he was not sure if that was his. I looked at the tag and saw the date. It was the same box his mother and I had bought him three years earlier. I had to ask him what he did for clean socks and underwear. He said that he would simply wash those in the sink and hang them on the doorknobs to dry.
Alas, now it will be up to someone else to teach him life skills!
