feel-good

A few months ago my parents were drunk at a party watching a football game. At one point, my dad said to one of the children there, who was about 6 or 7, "If you go bet my wife that her team is going to lose, you could probably get a bike out of her."

At this point my mom was in her "Give away money and make bets" stage of drunken-ness, and her team was very far behind towards the end of the game. So the kid runs up to her, "Miss Roberta! I bet you a bike that your team is going to lose!" And, of course, my mother insisted that her team would win and the bet was on.

When her team ended up losing, this little kid was beside himself excited. Jumping up and down, "I get a bike! I get a bike!"

My mom didn't have time to hold up her end of the deal before they had to leave (they were several hours from home visiting friends and had to get back home for work), but promised the boy that she would get him a bike the next time they visited.

This past week they ended up back in town, and called up the boy's dad- who was a friend of a friend. He said that he'd been talking about that bike ever since he had won the bet. Can you imagine the torturous suspense?? A little background on this family: 3 little boys, one of whom belongs to the wife's niece who couldn't take care of him so they took him in. So money's a little tight.

Anyway, they took the boy and his two brothers to Walmart to buy them all bikes. The other boys didn't want bikes, and instead wanted toys like a remote control car and lego sets. But the original boy ran to the bikes and picked one out, in the super excited way that only a little boy picking out a bike could be.

My parents were just about as giddy as the kids- they were all glowing with huge smiles as they walked out of the store with their new toys.