A Short Story…
Eddie had been having a good time. Although he hadn’t been doing too much, he was looking at the week and a half as a reward for not screwing up a number of things. He sat back in his favorite living room chair, relaxing with a bottle of beer on the small table and half-listening to the latest sports scores and still bitching about the loss of the Seattle Sonics from ages ago.
Edith walked in and said, “Well, what are you bringing tomorrow?” Eddie choked on his last glug of beer and saw it dribble down his shirt. He coughed twice before breathing and remarked, “What about tomorrow?” with a worried look on his face.
Eddie, took about fifteen minutes of choking, watching TV and wiping away the dribble with his forearm. Edith simply said, “You know what we’re doing tomorrow night. We discussed this three weeks ago. Actually, we’ve talked about it several times since. We’re going to have dinner at John and Bev’s house, so get the painful look off your face . . . there isn’t any excuse for not knowing and not selecting your own White Elephant gift for the annual game with our friends. I will NOT pick up something for you to use for the White Elephant exchange. That was your job and you had lots of time to get it.”
Eddie had no answer. His memory was a blank. He searched for anything to say and came up with nada. Actually, the only answer he could come up with was nada. He was still hiding behind the sports page. He was wondering how long he could take to respond when his car and house keys came sailing through his sports page and dropped on his chest.
Eddie started with “I thought you said . . . ” Just in time he closed his mouth and said, well, actually he had nothing to say. Edith did, however and said, “Get your shoes and coat on and bring along your wallet. I know your car has been acting up . . . just like you, so we are going shopping. I’m dropping you off. Call when you have your White Elephant. If you made a good choice then I’ll stop and pick you up. Make a bad choice, then keep looking and take a cab home.” Edith could see Eddie talking to himself as he walked toward the hall closet. She didn’t care.
Actually, just after midnight she did care when she had to get up and open the door. “Where’s your key? she asked.” Eddie hung his head down and said, “I don’t know . . . but I got my White Elephant.” Edith kept at him. “How many bars might have your house keys?” Before Eddie spoke, Edith interrupted and said, “Don’t bother.”
The next night Edith was completely dressed when Eddie knocked on the door, dressed nicely, and cold sober. Regardless she drove to the party; both remained quiet. At the party everything went along nicely. Edith and Eddie’s were fairly use to the quiet pauses followed by love and kind words.
The White Elephant gift exchange wasn’t really interesting until someone chose the gift given by Eddie. Edith closed her eyes and waited. Max, a very successful car salesman opened the White Elephant prize. It was a car game from 1922.
The car game didn’t sell really well in the 1920’s, but the game had been a fantastic step up in car sales. Max lost his prize to two other players until he had a chance to get his game back. All eyes in the game were glued to the competition and they all cheered when the game was finally finished. Max was praised by all the players and had more pats on his back than he had ever had before. His final statement “I owe all the fun and excitement to my wife. Without her beside me, I never would have played this wonderful game, nor enjoyed this evening like every game before.”
Amidst the cheers and comments Eddie jumped up and took centerstage in the living room. With both hands up he quietly calmed down the noise that had grown with Max praising his own wife. Eddie slowly turned around and looked everyone in the eye and then said “Ditto!” Even Edith had to laugh.
