It's That Time Again...

That's the earliest my father has ever arrived from work and the closing of the pharmacy in recent memory. Dusk was at hand and the skies were still bright and blue. Shafts of sunlight shined through my bathroom window hitting the wall in the hall.

"I bet you want to get in your leather recliner, crack open an icy cold diet Coke, and watch TV?" I asked my father.

"Yes!" he replied in exclamation, raising his hands up in victory -- almost in exaltation of a god for that hardened atheist. "And I hope your mother is in the bed so she won't ask me a hundred hard questions!"

Dad's been having me clean one thing a day and I chose my bathroom sink and mirror for today's project. He was pleased. Yesterday, I mopped the bathroom and kitchen floors.

"Yes!" he happily said as he patted me on my back after surveying my efforts.

Pops had made it through another grueling 10 hour shift filling prescriptions. I greedily scarfed down my medications and told him goodnight.