Chapter 11: The Inevitable

I am a very old man. I think about dying all the time. I suppose you could say it’s what drives me nowadays. I was never able to lose all that weight I put on in my depressed days, and it has bothered me since. I decided to do something about it. I have tons of these reward points I’ve accumulated throughout my life. You know, these days every place you go gives you points for stuff. It’s almost like you get points just for being alive! Anyway, I was up late one night working, and I saw an ad for this stuff called Insta Lean. I had enough points to redeem it without spending my own money on it, so I figured what the heck. If it didn’t work, at least I didn’t pay anything. And if it did work, at least I’ll be a much lighter person to carry in the casket. Here goes nothing!

“Whoa! This stuff really works! Wow…see, I knew I hadn’t lost my six pack! They were just in the cooler. LOL”

I don’t know whether that stuff had side effects, or whether I was just anxious about my not so distant demise, but all day I had trouble focusing.

All weekend I just tried to stay positive and focus on my family. I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible and show them how much I love them. I usually did not allow eating in the living room, and I definitely never allowed the TV to interfere with dinner time because dinner time is family time, but my son wanted so badly to do it. How could I not? It could be the last wish I granted him!

It was actually pretty fun, but I hope they don’t get used to it. I spent a lot of time with Donnie because I wanted him to understand his future role in the family, the type of life I wanted him to lead, and why it was important for him to understand and respect the legacy that he now was in charge of. And, of course, I wanted to tell him how proud I was of him and that I loved him. I didn’t care that his friend was around!

Luckily he’s still at the age when he loves to be around us.

I saw that my wife also took a special interest in teaching him about being the head of the family.

“Mommy? Why are you always out here?”

“I’m taking care of the flowers.”

“Why?”

“They’re your father’s flowers.”

“So?”

“Well, they are very important to him, so I help him take care of them. One day they will be your responsibility.”

“Aww, mom! But I don’t like flowers! Flowers are for girls!”

“Son, you’re going to take care of these flowers and that’s it! I’m sorry, Donovan…we’ll explain it to you when you’re a little older”