First Class Stamp Read Online Free PDF Page B

apartment after a long day at work,
he was relieved to see in his mailbox a letter from Luca. While still in the
elevator, he ripped open the envelope and quickly read the contents of the
letter. Luca’s mother, Maria, had told him he was not allowed to write any
letters to Ben until he had completed his school assignments that were
delinquent. Luca called her mean but Ben just chuckled. His own mother had
threatened him more times than he could count to get his homework done timely.
He commiserated with his buddy but also knew Maria was completely in the right.
    With all assignments completed and turned in, Luca now had a
few weeks holiday from school and would be able to write as often as he could.
Ben was happy to get the news that Luca was well and so all worst case
scenarios were scrubbed clean from his mind. He hadn’t realized how worried
he’d become until he knew he had no reason to be.
    Ben shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the back of
the dining chair. He loosened his tie and walked to the fridge and pulled a
bottle of Mountain Dew from the door. He chugged several gulps, burped loudly
and then went to get changed. He’d been invited to Matt and Janie’s for dinner.
Actually, Ella, his niece, had invited him and Janie had agreed.
    In jeans, a Yankee’s t-shirt and Nike flip flops he headed
back down the elevator and out into the warm summer evening to walk the few
blocks to his brother’s apartment.
    *****
    Alex all but skipped on the sidewalk, hurrying his mother
along, pleading with her to move faster because he was “staaaarving!” Sophia
grinned and shook her head and just half a block later entered the pizzeria to
grab a couple of slices to eat on the way to the cinema. Alex ordered two
cheese and Sophia one pepperoni and in a couple of minutes, pizza and drinks in
hand, they were back out on the street and headed for popcorn at the theater.
    Sadly, Sophia couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to
the movies with her son. She needed to make sure that he received the attention
he needed from her, as apparently her ex would remain an ass and end up being
an absentee father. She had several friends who’d divorced their husbands for
one reason or another, but most of them were attempting to make it work where
the kids were involved. Child support, custody, visitation, new partners,
health insurance, parent-teacher conferences, little league games, new
half-siblings, step siblings and the list went on forever. On the rare
occasions she got together with her girlfriends the topic of conversation
always ended up on how to navigate post-divorce existence. It wasn’t easy and
it sure as hell wasn’t pleasant...for Sophia anyway.
    Alex was smiling and chatting away and excited for the
evening ahead. He’d been such a happy baby and continued to be a happy child.
And now as he stood on the doorstep of his teenage years, Sophia hoped that the
trend would continue. Her life, however, was one stress upon another stress
upon more stress but she’d desperately tried to shield her son from it. Without
her parents, Sophia had no idea how’d they make it each month without the free
rent of their apartment. Money had always been a problem for her since the
moment she’d married Willis. In the beginning of their marriage it was because
they didn’t have any. They survived by eating mainly hot dogs and mac and
cheese, living in a dumpy studio apartment with occasional hot water, while she
worked two minimum waged jobs and he went to school. Willis said he couldn’t
work while in college because his mind needed to be focused and he had to work
hard to get good grades so that he’d secure a good job. How many times had she
come home after being on her feet for fourteen hours to find him sitting playing
a video game, the laundry piled by the front door waiting for her and dirty
dishes from his evening meal in the sink, with nothing prepared for her to eat?
How many years had she lived on five hours