Naming the Baby

Winner ---- 1/31/09

ID: 896794   (Rated: 13+) Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  Enter your story of 300 words or less. Note new starting time! by arakun the twisted raccoon

NAMING THE BABY

         “Why would anybody whose name is Frost name their son Jack?”  Cassie asked.

         “Why not?  Besides Jack’s not his real name.  His first name is Charles or Carl, something like that,” Alex told her.

         “So Jack Frost is a sort of pen name?”

         “You might say that, if he ever writes anything.  How did Jack get to be the subject of tonight’s conversation?”

         “I don’t know, I was just thinking about him.  We were talking at work about how what you name a child can affect his whole future.”

         “How so?”

         “Well if a kid has a funny name the other kids pick on him.  And can you imagine a woman whose first name is Bambi ever getting to be President?”

         “I can just barely imagine a woman getting to be president.  So you mean, if we have a girl and name her Bambi we save her from getting the worst job in the universe and aging thirty years in eight?”

         “All right, make jokes.  But naming this baby is going to be a serious matter.”
         Alex moved a log in the fireplace with the tongs and added wood.  “Mom wants us to name the baby after Dad if it’s a boy.”

         “That would be okay.  Steven is a good solid manly name.”

         Alex added more popcorn to the popper and said. “So then it’s Steven for a boy and anything but Bambi for a girl.”

         “We have a while to decide.  Just nothing too unusual if we want her to get anywhere in life.”

         “Then I guess Condoleeza is out.”
         
         261 words