"Well, all right, if you give up.
Remember a couple of years back when I told you that I was
auditioning for the situation comedy about an accountant who
meets an alien?"
I kept on listening.
He said, "Remember. You helped me research the part –
of the alien, get it?"
There had been thousands of auditions. He had
informed me that he had been on hundreds, but almost never cast.
The only reason that I recalled this particular audition was
that he had asked me to help him with a little character
research, using my background as an accountant to help him get
into the part. Specifically he had said that, "For once my
accounting career was going to be put to good use."
"Yes, well, I sort of remember, but I
thought the idea was canned by the networks, wasn't it?" I
asked, trying to remember precisely what happened with the show.
"Well," he continued, "it was
dead, but they gave it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and it is
going to be alive and breathing on the Fox network next spring!
We start production of actual episodes next Wednesday and we
will go on the air by mid June. I'm afraid that I’ve
finally done it. I’m going to be a TV star!"
"That’s fantastic! It’s
unbelievable," I said. "I'm envious, I knew that
someday if you kept slugging it out that eventually all of your
hard work would pay off. I knew you would be a success. Have you
called Mom and told her the news?"
"I just found out this morning," he
said. "I wanted to tell you first though, because you
always believed in me – not that Mom won’t be happy
that I’m substantially employed in any fashion. You and I
know that Mom would have still been happier if I had become a
dentist or something real."
"Don't be too hard on her; Mom just wants
what she thinks is best for you. Now you are getting the chance
to prove to her that you knew what was best all along," I
said, knowing his feelings were absolutely on target. Mom
probably wouldn't even begin to express any pride in Carl or his
work. More likely she would even be a little bit sarcastic,
saying something like, "Well, it took you long enough; now
you can start earning a living." She wasn't actually mean,
just a little bitter about life in general. Oh hell – who
was I kidding? She was a lot bitter.
