Carpool

“Are you sure that’s what he said?” Norm yawned noisily, stretching his arms toward his knees. Suddenly Norm laughed, “where did he even get the idea…?”

“It doesn’t even snow here,” said Kris, adjusting his grip on the wheel, “you sound like my wife- it’s not funny.”

Norm was laughing again, now bent all the way down gripping his toes. Kris glanced over, his scowl momentarily faltering in confusion, “what are… look, this kid was serious.” He directed his focus back to the road.

“He probably meant build… ” Norm put a foot up on the dashboard and started to laugh again, “I’m sorry, Kris, but it’s a little kid, he was probably just… you know, just saying crap,” Norm pushed against the roof of the car.

“Yeah, but this is different,” Kris took a long glance at his blind spot, “it isn’t just crap, it’s a… career goal or something, a dream.” Kris gripped the wheel again, hunching his small frame a bit closer to the windshield. A few cars passed on the right, which seemed to irritate Norm.

“Ok, so what did you tell him?” Norm asked after a few silent moments.

“You should have seen the kid, Norm, he was so certain,” Kris glanced into the rear view mirror.

“Kris, someone who wants to be a snowman when they grow up isn’t gonna pussyfoot around!” Norm was grinning, “Jesus, Kris, I hope you didn’t give the poor kid a science lecture.”

The car slowed into a toll queue, they were both silent for a moment while Kris rolled down the window. He awkwardly parted with a crinkled bill and a terse greeting before starting off again.

“Your car is so effin’ small,” Norm was adjusting the seat.

Kris slowed the car as someone merged into the lane, “I told him to go for it.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 3:25 am and is filed under Story-a-week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.