Michael smiled, nodded animatedly, and hugged his father tightly. He hugged him back. Then he stood up to his full height, took his son's hand and opened the front door to the street.
George: ‘Okay, let's go, the bus leaves school in 30 minutes. Don't forget your rucksack…’
747, September. It was a warm sunny day. Michael and Fred were sitting on a bench in one of Ounvilshen's parks. Michael was dangling his legs back and forth as the bench was still a little high for him. He was leaning on the bench with one hand, and in the other he was holding a cream ice cream cone in a waffle cone, drips from which slowly dripped down his fingers and fell onto his clothes and onto the bench. Fred was reading the newspaper, cross-legged.
Michael: ‘We've been waiting for him for half an hour…I don't think he's coming any more. We'll go without him as usual…’
Fred broke away from reading the newspaper and looked at the boy, putting it aside.
Fred: ‘Please don't be angry with your father. I know you wish he would spend more time with you besides dinners. But, believe me, some people don't even see their fathers that way. He's trying really hard, Michael. For you and for Mum.’
Michael sighed: ‘Yeah I understand. It's just that we've been planning this trip to the moon park for so long, postponed it many times, and now I'm here and he's not here again…’
Fred: ‘It's not “didn't make it”, it's “couldn't make it”. These are different phrases. In the first, the person didn't come of his own free will because he just didn't want to. And in the second, the person didn't come due to circumstances beyond their control.’
Michael jumped off the bench and headed towards the entrance to the Luna Park, ‘No matter how you look at it, the result is the same in the end.’
Fred quickly jumped down from his seat, grabbed the items on the bench and ran after Michael, leaving the unread newspaper there. It remained where it had been. The wind blew and flipped through a few pages, as if reading today's city news in passing.
After Michael turned 10 years old, something changed in his mind in terms of thinking and relating to his father. And also his work. He realised that there were more important issues than whether or not to go to the moon park. That there are certain responsibilities in a family that need to be fulfilled.