Daniel

                 

    Daniel stood at attention three inches from his living room window.  

It’s been two days now since his ninth birthday and Daniel stood 

impatiently at that window eagerly awaiting more presents to arrive.  

Gumball, Daniels cat has already made her third attempt at making her 

presence known , bumping and purring against his leg all the while 

thinking to herself “this is it” but Daniel would not leave his post.  

Gumball would have to find companionship elsewhere, possibly, Susan, 

Daniels older sister by a year, or maybe Karen, Daniels mother who’s 

never here anyway so……it’ll have to be Susan.  

    Gumball made one last attempt for affection by sighing a melancholy 

meow as she slowly tip toed away, but of course displaying as much 

rejection as she could muster.  I’ll pet her later he thought, but for 

now there was no room for distractions, nothing was going to get in his 

way.  

  

     It’s not like he didn’t appreciate the new whale hat that his 

mom had bought him, or the whiffel-ball bat, or the corny backpack, 

or that stupid Jaws skateboard!  He just knew that the big one was on 

it’s way.  His father was about to bring him the one present that he’d 

been waiting so long for ever since he saw Duran Duran perform 

on MTV.  Daniel wanted a drum set, preferably the one with the 

little splash symbol on top of the big round floor drum, or whatever 

that thing is called.  It just looks cool.  None of his other friends 

have a drum set; he’d be the first.  He’d already created scenarios and 

rock star fantasies of him being interviewed by MTV moments before his 

big gig:

     “What inspired you to write Blood Tears, your newest and latest 

masterpiece?”

    “Well I have to thank my band of course, and my dad who bought me my 

first drum set when I was a kid.”  Oh how cool that would be, he 

thought.  But first back to the window.

         

     Daniel’s neighbor Mr. Jacobson, was the only sign of life in this 

God forsaken neighborhood, pushing along a rusty, light green lawnmower 

through his carefully manicured lawn.  He never liked Mr. Jacobson.  He 

thought that he was weird, and Daniel was thoroughly convinced that Mr. 

Jacobson abused his dog on a continual basis.  Furthermore Daniel knew 

that he’d be the only person to complain once he got his drum set.  He 

was always complaining about something.  Once at Halloween Mr. Jacobson 

yelled at him for being late.  Late?  How can you  be late to Halloween?  

Besides his candy was awful, it was that really bad hard candy that’s 

wrapped in stupid assorted colors that you find only at a dentists 

office, of all places.

    But not this time, nobody, not even the evil Mr. Jacobson was going 

to stand in the way of Daniel playing his new drums.  Daniel was already 

thinking about all of the places that he could set up the drums once 

they’d arrive.  Maybe in his room, the dining room, no better yet the 

garage!, so Mr. Jacobson can really hear them.

    The sun was starting to set behind the long militant row of matching 

houses and Daniel started wondering if he was ever going to receive his 

present.  How long can I stand at this damn window.  Besides, he 

wouldn’t even know what kind of car to look for.  He knows what his mom 

drives, that crappy brown Sedan, but he hasn’t seen his father for over 

six months now and maybe his father bought a new car, or maybe he 

doesn’t even live in Florida anymore.  But all he can remember 

is, on that one day, six months earlier, his father told his son that 

he’d be there for his birthday.  He promised, and Daniel believed him. 

      

        MR. Jacobson was wrapping up the extension cord to the lawn 

mower when Gumball launched out a "GOD DAMN I'M STARVING!" meow.  Daniel 

couldn’t ignore this one.  Gumball was hungry and Gumball was gonna eat.

Daniel looked out of the window one more time before hustling into the 

kitchen following the bellowing cries from the cat.  After filling up 

the food bowl and setting it back down, Daniel tried to pet Gumball 

only to have her maneuver and bully Daniel out of her “cat area” as if 

to say “pay backs a bitch“.  Unfazed, Daniel hurried back to the window.  

      The broken down Grandfather clock chimed at six thirty.  It was 

getting dangerously late now and Daniel was losing faith in the arrival 

of his new glamorous star studded future.  The only thing that he could 

think of that might speed up the process of his dad showing up, would be 

a small change, maybe.  What if I looked out of my own window?  This 

window doesn’t seem to be working.  He ran down the hallway making a 

quick stop at Susan’s room, simply to ask her if she’d heard from their 

dad.  “Get away from me you pig!” she screamed over Reo Speedwagon 

blaring from her record player.  Not surprised or affected at all by his 

sisters behavior, he continued down the hallway only curious to why she 

listens to that God awful music.  

     

     Mr. Jacobson was now out of site and the street lights started to 

introduce themselves one by one, teasing Daniel that this day was almost 

over.  And although Daniel felt rejuvenated by his new “different 

window” scheme, he also couldn't help but think that this was it, that 

these were all of the presents that he was going to get for 

his birthday.  The new skateboard, that dumb hat, the stupid big wheel. 

Yep, they’re all still here.  That’s it, that’s my birthday.  

 

    He took a moment to admire his heavily decorated wall that were 

plastered with rock star posters ranging from The Clash, The Sugarhill 

Gang, Kiss and of course his favorite, Samantha Fox.  I know she likes 

drummers he smiled, and then in the middle of a deep appreciation of 

Samantha’s curves he was interrupted by the sound of a car pulling up 

into the driveway.  "YAY!" he screamed, as he whipped back to the window 

only to see his mom slowly pull up in that crappy brown Sedan.  

     Daniel perched higher into the window looking further down the 

street, hoping that his dad was right behind her.  Maybe she's going to 

help him carry in my drumset?  

     Karen quickly got out of the car carrying, as usual, her briefcase 

and a huge stack of papers.  More work.  If anything, Daniel's mom was 

the hardest working person in the neighborhood, although Daniel still to 

this day has no idea what she does.

      The front door to the house opened and shut almost at the same 

time and Daniel could hear his mom walking up the hallway toward his 

room.  He climbed onto his bed, lied down and returned to his posters.  

His mothers footsteps quickly passed by his room and into another room 

followed by a door slamming.  Now What? 

      

      Daniel focused in on one specific poster on his wall.  It was a 

poster of a lonely surfer standing on the beach staring into an 

angry ocean choreographing waves up to fifty feet tall.  He pointed at 

the poster, squinted one eye, and then slowly outlined the body of the 

surfer.  Afterwards, he plopped his pointing finger onto his chest, 

turned off his bed light and then got under the covers.  

    

      His door opened slowly, revealing only the silhouette of his 

mother. 

She inched the door open, "Danny? You awake?" "I saw you looking out of 

the window five minutes ago sweetie, I know you’re awake."

Rolling away from her, "I wasn’t looking out of the stupid window."

She walked in and sat at the edge of his bed, "Did you have dinner?"

"Yes", he mumbled.

"How was school this week?"

"It was OK."

"That’s good."  Karen tucked him in and gently ran her hand through his 

soft, stringy hair, "Goodnight sweetie."  She smiled and then headed for 

the door. 

"Hey Mom", still facing the wall.

Stopping at the door, "Yeah?"

"Isn’t dad coming by today?"  Karen hesitated.  Then cheerfully, "Today?  

No sweetie, why would you think that?"

"He said he was."

      The muffled sound of Susan’s music was barely audible through the 

bedroom wall.  Karen stood by the door focused only at the faded 

cartoon portrait of Spiderman on the back of her sons pajamas.  Daniel 

finally rolled over to face her.  Karen took a deep breath, exhaled, and 

then with a rehearsed sincerity, "Honey your father moved to Washington 

a long time ago.  You know that.  The last time I talked to him he 

said that he was going to try to visit you in the summer, but I 

wouldn’t count on it."

 

     Karen assembled one last smile before closing the door 

behind her, leaving Daniel in the dark.  After listening to his mothers 

footsteps fade into her room, Daniel carefully crawled off of his bed, 

gently walked past his new whiffel bat, that dumb hat, the silly 

backpack and then slowly inched over the curtain to peak out.