A Million to One
“Why do movies always have bad people in them?”
Morey Bernstein wasn’t old enough yet to be sitting in the front seat, so his question came floating up from the back. Maureen looked into the rear view mirror to study her little guy.
“Was it a scary movie, honey?”
“Not really. I was just wondering.”
Maureen turned her eyes back to the road. And then, after a long pause, she said, “That’s a good question. I guess they want to make it more exciting. Maybe we should ask grandpa.”
Harriet Lansing had picked up the other four boys after the Saturday Matinee, but Maureen’s father, Bennie, had just come home from the hospital the previous Thursday and now they were all having an early dinner together to celebrate his recovery.
“Was this movie as good as the last one?” Maureen asked, again checking Morey in the rear view mirror.
“Yea, I guess. Maybe not. Yea probably,” Morey said, obviously not sure how he felt about Space Rangers 4: Revenge of the Trojans.
Morey was grateful to be simply watching the ordinary street scenes pass outside. Buildings that were not tumbling down in flames. Windows that were not breaking. People walking on the sidewalk, or waiting on benches for the bus. The people outside the car window people were not being blasted away or flying around or running for their lives. He liked the gray clouds and the people in their coats. He hoped it would snow, so the world would go even slower.
“Okay, here we are,” Maureen said, ten minutes later, pulling to the curb in front of a small frame house with neatly trimmed bushes that was tucked between two larger, more modern but less well-kept homes. “Be sure to give your grandpa a big hug. He’s missed you. And hasn’t been feeling good.”
“I know,” Morey said, unbuckling his seat belt. He waited for his mother to come around and open his door.
“Hey there, young sir,” Grandpa Bennie said, opening the glass screen door as Maureen and Morey walked onto the porch. He had obvuiously been waiting and watching for them.
“Hey dad, should you be up?” Maureen asked.
“Hi grandpa,” Morey said.
“Sure. I’m fine. I’m fine. Come in, come in,” Grandpa Bennie said, holding the screen door wide.
As Morey went by his grandpa patted him on the head and Morey briefly patted him on the hip. Maureen kissed him on the cheek.
“Good to see you up and about,” she said.
“Yea, yea, your mother has been taking good care of me. I’m fine.”
When they were in the house, door closed, taking of their coats, giving them to Grandpa Bennie, he asked, “So how was the movie?”
“Pretty good,” Morey said.
“As good as the other ones?” Bennie asked.
“No, not really,” Morey said, apparently having decided.
“Oh that’s too bad,” Grandpa Bennie said, hanging up the coats.
“Hey look who’s here,” Grandma Louise said, coming out of the kitchen drying her hands on a dish towel.
After dinner, when the ladies were in the kitchen doing dishes, Morey put down the old I-Pad they kept for him and looked at his grandpa, reading the newspaper.
“Grandpa, why are there always bad people in the movies?”
Grandpa Bennie looked up from the newspaper. He looked at Morey for a long while, nodding his head slightly, thinking about it. They watched each other.
“Because movies are make-believe,” he finally said.
“Are there bad guys in real life?”
Again, Grandpa Bennie nodded his head, thinking about it a long while. “There’s mostly good guys,” he said. “Not like the movies. In the movies it’s one to one or even five bad guys to one of the good guys. In real life, it’s a hundred good guys, or even a thousand good guys, maybe ten thousand good guys, to every bad guy.
Morey studied him and thought about this. “Might there be maybe even a million good guys to one bad guy? Morey asked.
“Yes, yes, I think you’re right. A million good guys, in real life, to every bad guy. Maybe even two million, in real life.”
“That’s good,” Morey said, looking back at his I-pad. “I like that much better.”
Bear Gebhardt lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, USA. His two most recent books are the “Potless Pot High: How to Get High, Clear and Spunky without Weed,” and “How to Stop Smoking in Fifteen Easy Years: A Slacker’s Guide.” Website: beargebhardt.com