No Children’s Theater Tickets
Posted by Doug in Arts, Society at 11:03 am Back in the day, when I was a teenager, my mother and I were standing in line to buy Children’s Theater Tickets. I remember, when finally, there was only a few more people in front of us for the ticket counter. They seemed to be together, like they were a family. If so, it was a huge family, like eight or nine children. They didn’t seem to be rich either; more like they were dirt poor cause their clothes seemed really worn and out of date, but they were clean at least.
My mother made a comment to me that I should be more like the children in front of us because they were well behaved. I just gave her a look, like ‘what? I’m well behaved!’, I mean, after all, I was just standing there, not doing anything wrong. The parents were in front of the children not even worried that their kids were miss-behaving. I noticed too that the parents were holding hands and they kept eyeing each other, like they were going to kiss, but held back from doing so.
When the family in front of us reached the ticket window, the ticket lady asked them how many tickets and the father said it loud enough for my back teeth to hear, ‘I would like eight children’s tickets and two adults, please.’ When the ticket lady responded with the price of all those tickets, I saw the father looked down and then back at his wife. I then heard him ask, even though this time he was asking in a hushed voice, ‘How much did you say?’ Of course the price didn’t change, and I saw a look of such deep sadness come across the fathers face. He didn’t have enough money.
I didn’t know my mother was paying any attention to what was happening in front of us, but she was and she immediately pulled out a $20 from her purse and dropped it on the ground. Now, let me tell you, we weren’t that loaded with money either, my mother being a single parent. I watched my mother reach down and pick up the $20, then tapping on the young fathers shoulders saying ‘Excuse me sir, but this fell out of your pocket.’ The father looked straight into my mothers eyes and I could see a whole wordless conversation going on between the two. And finally, the father said, ‘Thank you, Miss. I thought I had lost it on the way here, you truly are a blessing.’
My mother and I didn’t get to see the Children’s Theater http://www.classicsonstage.com/that day, we ended driving home in silence, but we we’re both smiling.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.