December 28th of 2024 was a normal day. The sun came up from the East, and various forms of transportation all across North America came to life, bringing their occupants to their various places of work. Ethan was one of the earliest risers, having left home even before the sun had risen, at 5 A.M.
Of course, it wasn’t because he wanted to; in fact, he felt like shit. He had a cold, and was only conscious enough to drive his 2002 Honda Civic because of the dark black coffee he’d had only a half-hour earlier. It tasted just as shit as he felt, but it kept him awake.
Today was his mother’s forty-third birthday, and there was no way in hell he was missing it. He’d quit his shitty office job a week earlier and was still on the prowl for a new one, so there was no excuse whatsoever.
Ethan glanced over at passenger seat, where a long, wrapped box containing her present raised up from its position on the floorboard, knowing she’d love it but feeling bad nonetheless. His gift was good, but didn’t hold a candle to everything she had gone through and all the work she’d done to raise him.
Inside was a wooden cane he had personally carved for her. It had taken him an entire month to learn how to do it well enough to be happy with it, but it ought to be perfect for her now. She’d broken her ankle two years ago, but she never rested long enough for it to fully, completely heal. Thus, she’d been using a cane for almost a year after the pain got to be too bad.
He’d measured the cane that fit her best so that it would work perfectly, and then had done everything he could to make it as beautiful as he could with his meager skill. Ethan thought he’d done a great job.
Ethan sighed as his gaze returned to the road. He hummed along with the radio’s music until it changed to country, in which he quickly reached over and changed the channel. He couldn’t stand country music, and a smile played on his lips as he remembered his many ‘fights’ with his mom about it. She loved country music, and it was a constant battle to see who got to drive so that they controlled the radio.
His eyes caught on a weird formation in the clouds a few miles to the west. It was a weirdly vertical cloud, to the point that he almost thought it was a tornado- but no, it looked more like a pillar than a tornado. The light of the rising sun caught the pillar of clouds beautifully, causing them to glint brilliantly.
…Speaking of the sun, it was right in his eyes. He pulled the sun visor down and got lost in the music again for a few minutes. Eventually, he pushed the sun visor back up and decided to just endure the sun’s rays, as the visor was just a bit too low for him to feel comfortable driving with it down for long periods of time.
Like this, an hour and a half passed. He pulled over at a gas station, filled his car up while grimacing at the prices, grabbed a water bottle out of the trunk of his car and restarted his trek to his mom’s place. It was only an hour away now.
∑
Finally, Ethan pulled into the driveway to home. He parked, grabbed his gift, keys, and briefly checked his phone to make sure nothing important had happened, and then pushed the door open and stepped out. He pushed the car door closed and locked it as he walked up to the nice little place’s porch, knocking on the door.
Ethan had a key to the place, but he wanted his mom to open it, see him and give him a big hug. He also didn’t want the dog to freak out; he always did, unless his mom was the one to open the door.
His face turned a bit sad at the thought of Gadget. The poor guy had apparently got cataracts in both of his eyes since the last time he’d seen him. His downtrodden expression disappeared as he heard the deadbolt slide open, and when the door swung open, his mom was greeted only by a loving grin. There’d been a window on the door, so she’d already known it was him; thus, the moment that the door was open, she shouted his name and threw herself into his open arms.
After a long hug, his mom finally released him and pulled him inside.
“You got here fast!” She said happily, and Ethan nodded. “Yeah, I left at five. Traffic was clearer than I expected, too, so I got here a bit earlier than even I expected.”
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
She insisted that he sit down, and he didn’t argue; it was pointless, he knew. She loved to cook, and hated anyone getting in the way.
As she went about pulling out a few eggs and turning on the stove, they talked.
“Oh, did you win that tournament?” She asked at some point, and he frowned before realizing what she was talking about. There’d been a tournament for a real-time-strategy game that he played a lot, and he’d entered. She’d always actually been surprisingly interested in the video game, and even played it with him sometimes.
“I got third place; won a few hundred dollars!” Ethan bragged, and she grinned at him. “Good job! I bet you ate well, eh?”
“Where’s Gadget?” Ethan eventually realized. He hadn’t shown up to greet him.
“Oh; he’s on the couch in the living room. You can go check on him if you want, but he’s just being a lazybones.” She said, a bit of sadness in her voice.
Ethan stood up from the table and walked into the living room, peering over the back of the couch. Gadget was right there, and he clearly finally recognized his smell, judging by the furious wagging of his tail and the fact he was getting up.
Gadget crawled off the edge of the couch, causing Ethan to chuckle, and walked around to see him. He pushed his snout into Ethan’s hands, before wandering off.
“Where are you headed, big guy?” Ethan asked, and he grinned when Gadget picked up a rope meant for tug-of-war and brought it to him.
“Must be the golden retriever in him that keeps him so playful even at his age,” His mom commented from behind him, causing Ethan to jump a bit. He somehow hadn’t heard her approach.
“Have you been practicing to be a ninja or something?” He asked even as he took the rope and held it as Gadget pulled.
Gadget had a tendency to give up if he didn’t win quickly- a tendency which only got worse as he aged- and so, after a few seconds, Ethan let the rope slip from his fingers right when Gadget yanked on it, smiling at the old dog’s wagging tail.
“’More energetic now than he’s been in the past few weeks,” His mom commented as Ethan showered the cutie with compliments, like “who’s a good boy,” and “you’re so strong,”. She grabbed her soon-to-be old cane off of its place leaning on the bar separating the kitchen from the living room, returning to the kitchen. That must’ve been why she’d come back in here.
A few minutes of playing and loving on Gadget later, his mom called from the kitchen. “Food’s ready!”
He walked into the kitchen, followed by Gadget, and grabbed the pair of plates she was holding and placed them at the table as she followed behind with her cane.
On the plates was a pair of egg sandwiches each, which he loved. Gadget was given a bowl of dog food with some eggs mixed in with it, which she slowly ate a few feet from the table.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Ethan said, “Do you want to open your gift after breakfast, or later?” He asked her.
“After breakfast, of course,” She answered, and he smiled.
A few minutes later, Ethan sat back with a sigh and dramatically patted his stomach. He’d devoured them both quickly, and she was almost done, too. They hadn’t even spoken throughout the meal.
Once his mom finished a minute or so later and Ethan did the dishes, they sat down in the living room and Ethan handed her his gift. She waited to open it long enough for Gadget to walk into the room and hop up into the couch, watching what they were doing carefully. He was a clever dog.
Finally, she pulled the wrapping off, revealing the product of a month of hard work. It was a dark color but was made of maple, and its handle was measured to fit her hand snugly. Its length had a few problems, but it was almost definitely still a greater quality than the cane she had resting against her chair.
More importantly, he’d had someone engrave a little inside joke-quote into it. “Counting steps, avoiding cracks, and still getting into trouble”, it read.
When Ethan was little, he and his mom would go on walks… which kid-Ethan tended to find pretty boring. Thus, they’d come up with a game where they would count their steps and cracks in the sidewalk and see who had the most when they got home- the getting into trouble part was just because he’d tried to cheat a few times.
She said nothing for a while, inspecting it carefully and staring at the quote for a long while. Ethan was shocked when she started to cry, and Gadget crawled into her lap to try to comfort her, not understanding that they seemed to be tears of joy.
Ethan wrapped his arms around his mom, unsure of what to say. Before he could figure out what he was meant to say, Gadget interrupted the moment by dragging his tongue across her face, from chin to forehead. They all laughed, and Ethan went to get a rag from the bathroom so that she could clean her face off.
“He’s acting like a puppy trapped in an old dog’s body today,” His mom commented when he returned, taking the rag and wiping her face down.
“So… I assume you like it?” Ethan asked when she finished, and she laughed.
“Do you really need to ask that? Of course I love it; I’ll take it to work with me today.”
Ethan gaped for a moment. “You’re going to work on your birthday?” He asked, incredulous.
“Unfortunately, yes. Charlotte’s a prick; you know that.” She told him. “Are you going to be staying here long enough for me to see you after work?” She asked, hopeful.
Ethan nodded. “I intended to stay all day,” He reassured her.
“That’s good. Just hold tight here till five, make sure Gadget gets all the attention he deserves, and then I’ll make us a cake when I get home.” She told him.
“Sure,” Ethan told her, not intending to go along with that last bit at all. He fully intended to have dinner and her cake made for her when she returned, likely exhausted, from work, even if she loved cooking.