MOMMY'S OFFICE

From the collection A Bit of Fantasy

Copyright March 2005

[Part 2]

It was a great life, and—best of all—I had my own office at the apartment.  It was in a “walk-in closet.”  I had my own little desk and chair, a bookcase with my favorite books, my stuffed cat named Guinivere—because my real cat from the farm, Lancelot, couldn’t visit the apartment—and all sorts of wall space to hang up my artwork.  I also had a small, old, TV from Grandpa’s, but I didn’t watch it very much when I was working at my office. 

I even had a pretend window over my desk.  It was a framed picture of lavenders growing in a field in Provence.  Someday Mommy and Daddy are going to take me there, and Daddy is going to see how they grow flowers there.  Then he can tell his botany students all the reasons why people love French flowers.

Late in the summer, Mommy finished her doctorate and was in a ceremony wearing a long robe and a flat hat. Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Grandma, and I all went out to eat after the ceremony, and that was fun—until they got into one of their serious talks about the bills.  Grandpa and Daddy were saying that now the apartment in the city wouldn’t be needed, and the money usually spent on it could be used for the “fixer-upper” and the Provence savings account.  They were very excited, but Mommy and I were worried.  We liked the apartment.  I whispered to her and asked her why Daddy didn’t want to keep the apartment.  She said it was because he was a “country mouse.”  I’ll have to ask Lancelot to explain that to me.