Today is Free Pizza Thursday at Pizza Hut!
I asked a girl behind the counter where the free samples were and she pointed to a counter behind me. I grabbed three slices of cheese pizza without first locating a plate, then also grabbed three paper towels and folded them to accommodate the pizza slices, which I also folded - triangle on top of triangle in a letter-fold, then awkwardly by rolling the point of the triangle up to the crust. After all this, with both my hands full of drippy greasy pizza, I noticed there was Canadian bacon and pineapple.
I walked back to the apartment complex where Gary was organizing a kickball game. I went around to Kevin's and Maya's to see if they could play.
I saw Kevin through the open front window sitting in the dining room, his eyes glistening and face flushed. At the far end of the hallway stood a dark shadow. Kevin whispered, "I have to work on my homework, Steve. Sorry."
Maya was leaning against the hallway outside her front door. "Tonight is family time and I messed it all up," she whimpered up at me.
I thought then how so often and unfairly the stress and problems of parents are confusingly twisted then projected onto their children.
