Father and Son Games

Written for:

ID: 1558020   (Rated: ASR) Parenting Short Story Contest  Parenting is the funnest job ever! Or not? You tell me! by Giselle thanks WdC

About 308 words

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"I say yes."

"I guess I will say no," Dad replied to me.

Dad’s 1961 red Ford Falcon rolled south, down the hill on Centre Street. As we got onto the Centre Street Bridge, guarded by the grey stone lions looking down on us from their high perches, Dad and I snapped our heads to the west.

"I win!! I win!!" I cried with excitement. The Rocky Mountains appeared bold and majestic with their white capped peaks, the clear blue sky providing a blue hue to the granite.

Dad feigned a frown and nodded in agreement, “You won…again.”

Only 80 miles away, the mountains could appear so close you would think you could reach out and touch them. Other days, they disappeared completely.

Dad knew that mountains or no mountains, we both won every time we played this game.

At 10 years old I never tired of the game. It made me feel close to my father.

Twenty years later:

"I say this one," said Cam, as he jumped in front of the middle elevator.

"OK. I take this one," I replied jumping in front the elevator door on the right.

Shortly the door to the leftmost elevator crawled open.

"I guess we both loose," Cam smiled at me.

"I guess we do," I said with fake sadness as we walked through the open door.

But I knew that my Cam, my 10 year old son, and I both won. And we won every time we played this game. Just as my dad and I had always won, each time we drove south across the Centre Street Bridge, so many years earlier.

Twenty years later:

Cam and his son, Cain, are now developing their own game. I watch, as they develop their own rules about who wins, and who loses – but there is no loser in this game.