It Runs in the Family
A story in 60 seconds
You never know what you’ll inherit…
“Your Uncle Jay is in jail again,” the boy’s mom said as she slid his dinner plate across the table.
The boy spun it so the fat slice of turkey was facing him. “Aw, nah. What he do now?”
“Who knows,” his mom answered, wiping away some sweat. “Probably stole another car or something.”
“And he got caught?” the boy asked.
“Uncle Jay gets caught every time,” she said, sitting down across from her son. “But somehow, he always manages to wiggle his way out. Man is slippery as a river eel.”
The boy sipped his water and watched as a bead of condensation slid off the glass and onto the table. He stared at it and wondered.
“Mom,” he said with a slight hesitation. “I know something about Uncle Jay.”
She raised her eyebrows curiously. “Oh? Now what do you know about your uncle?”
“I’m not sure if I should say. He doesn’t know I know.”
She pierced a string bean with her fork. “If he doesn’t know, then it won’t hurt to say.”
“You won’t tell him, right?”
“Tell him what?”
“That I told you.”
“Course not,” his mom said in between mouthfuls.
“Okay…well, I know you won’t believe me, but I think Uncle Jay can go invisible or something. A couple of times I just seen him disappear, then he’d come back a few seconds later like nothing happened.”
“Invisible?”
The boy nodded.
“Interesting,” she said before finishing her last lump of mashed potatoes. She put down her fork and pushed the plate away from the table. “Kind of like this?”
And with a snap of her fingers, she vanished.
The boy’s eyes welled up with tears. “Mom!” he called out frantically, dashing around the kitchen. “Mom! Where’d you go!”
A few seconds later, she reappeared at the dinner table, smiling.
“Mom!” the boy shouted, “how did you do that?”
“I was born with the gift,” she called out. “So was Jay…And hopefully, so was you.”