Michael Y.
Yelp
CRISIS. 9PM on a Friday night. My wife asks me, "Aren't you going to read to the boys?"
"Read? Read what?! We've read everything in the house." I reply, my head in my hands.
"You've got to be kidding." She walks to the shelf in the boys' room and starts rifling through. "You've read this? (Treasure Island)"
"Yes."
"And this? (Holes)"
"Yes."
"And this? (A Wrinkle in Time) And this? (Belly Up) And this? (The True Meaning of Smekday) And this? (The Giver)"
"Yes, yes, yes."
The titles continue to fly over her shoulder. A pile of historical fiction. Harry Potter. Narnia. Tolkien. King Arthur. Arabian Nights. Homer.
"And even this? (Ender's Game)"
"Yes, we finished last night. It was awesome." I nod forlornly.
We pause for a moment in silence, staring at the ground, contemplating the long-term developmental implications of going without reading to our children for one entire day.
"Well, I guess there's only one thing to do."
EMERGENCY MISSION TO CHILDREN'S BOOK WORLD.
9:45 AM on Saturday. We're in the parking lot, leaning up against the side of the car. Kevin is there (thank heavens), bringing some boxes in from the back storage area. I inform him of the situation.
"We'll be open in just a few minutes," he says, cheek pressed up against one of the boxes. "It's gonna be ok," he reassures me.
And deep down inside, I believe him.
Doors open. The boys and I fan out in the children's fiction section. Kevin stands benevolently beside us. We pick some books out and show them to him. As usual, he has read them all.
"I really enjoyed that one - excellent for this age, carries some adult themes but without the degree of darkness that you might see in other books of this genre. That one was good, but fell short of expectations since the first in the series was so outstanding; you might pick something else. That's one of Chelsie's favorites: set during the Civil War, really depicts a side of the conflict that most people don't know about. That one? Oh, yes - my girlfriend and I were debating the merits of the various works of Charles Dickens last night over dinner. I would say Oliver Twist before David Copperfield."
Kevin. My man.
The boys show him some titles.
"You sure you want the whole series? How 'bout start with the first one and see how it goes. That one is an excellent sequel if you liked the first one. That one is good, very fast paced with a lot of action."
My ten-year-old delves into Poached by Stuart Gibbs, then pauses to look at me seriously.
"I get to read this one first."
I know better than to argue with him.
30 minutes later, we approach the cash register with three armfuls of books. As Kevin rings us up, I finally feel my pulse coming back to normal. And my breathing is steadier now.
Back home, we unload our quarry onto the shelf as my wife moves some of the older volumes to storage. The ten-year-old plops down in his usual reading position on the sofa. He'll be there for the rest of the day. Life is back to normal.
WHEW. That was a CLOSE one.