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A Million to One<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do movies always have bad people in them?\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bear Gebhardt<\/strong>\u00a0 lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, USA. His two most recent books\u00a0 are the \u201cPotless Pot High: How to Get High, Clear and Spunky without Weed,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cHow to Stop Smoking in Fifteen Easy Years: A Slacker\u2019s Guide.\u201d\u00a0 Website: beargebhardt.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Million to One \u201cWhy do movies always have bad people in them?\u201d Morey Bernstein wasn\u2019t 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. \u201cWas it a scary\u00a0 movie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8431,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429\/revisions\/8431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMorey Bernstein wasn\u2019t 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.
\n\u201cWas it a scary\u00a0 movie, honey?\u201d
\n\u201cNot really. I was just wondering.\u201d
\nMaureen turned her eyes back to the road. And then, after a long pause, she said, \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. I guess they want to make it more exciting. Maybe we should ask grandpa.\u201d
\nHarriet Lansing had picked up the other four boys after the Saturday Matinee, but Maureen\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cWas this movie as good as the last one?\u201d Maureen asked, again checking Morey in the rear view mirror.
\n\u201cYea, I guess. Maybe not. Yea probably,\u201d Morey said, obviously not sure how he felt about Space\u00a0 Rangers 4: Revenge of the Trojans.
\nMorey 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.\u00a0 The people outside the car window people were not being blasted away or flying around or running for their lives.\u00a0 He liked the gray clouds and the people in their coats. He hoped it would snow, so the world would go even slower.
\n\u201cOkay, here we are,\u201d 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. \u201cBe sure to give your grandpa a big hug. He\u2019s missed you. And hasn\u2019t been feeling good.\u201d
\n\u201cI know,\u201d Morey said, unbuckling his seat belt. He waited for his mother to come around and open his door.
\n\u201cHey there, young sir,\u201d 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.
\n\u201cHey dad, should you be up?\u201d Maureen asked.
\n\u201cHi grandpa,\u201d Morey said.
\n\u201cSure. I\u2019m fine. I\u2019m fine. Come in, come in,\u201d Grandpa Bennie said, holding the screen door wide.
\nAs Morey went by his grandpa patted him on the head and Morey briefly patted him on the hip. Maureen kissed him on the cheek.
\n\u201cGood to see you up and about,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cYea, yea, your mother has been taking good care of me. I\u2019m fine.\u201d
\nWhen they were in the house, door closed, taking of their coats, giving them to Grandpa Bennie, he asked, \u201cSo how was the movie?\u201d
\n\u201cPretty good,\u201d Morey said.
\n\u201cAs good as the other ones?\u201d Bennie asked.
\n\u201cNo, not really,\u201d Morey said, apparently having decided.
\n\u201cOh that\u2019s too bad,\u201d Grandpa Bennie said, hanging up the coats.
\n\u201cHey look who\u2019s here,\u201d Grandma Louise said, coming out of the kitchen drying her hands on a dish towel.
\nAfter 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.
\n\u201cGrandpa, why are there always bad people in the movies?\u201d
\nGrandpa 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.
\n\u201cBecause movies are make-believe,\u201d he finally said.
\n\u201cAre there bad guys in real life?\u201d
\nAgain, Grandpa Bennie nodded his head, thinking about it a long while. \u201cThere\u2019s mostly good guys,\u201d he said. \u201cNot like the movies. In the movies it\u2019s one to one or even five bad guys to one of the good guys. In real life, it\u2019s a hundred good guys, or even a thousand good guys, maybe ten thousand good guys, to every bad guy.
\nMorey studied him and thought about this. \u201cMight there be maybe even a million good guys to one bad guy? Morey asked.
\n\u201cYes, yes, I think you\u2019re right. A million good guys, in real life, to every bad guy.\u00a0 Maybe even two million, in real life.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s good,\u201d Morey said, looking back at his I-pad. \u201cI like that much better.\u201d<\/p>\n