It was freezing, and Gil knew it would take his brother forever to answer the door.
If he would have just gotten my niece a dog, the dog would be barking and would have announced my presence.
Finally Tim’s face in the foyer window.
The door opened.
“I was in the neighborhood, knew Wednesday night was Claire’s robotics club, decided to run her Christmas presents over.”
Timmy looked at them skeptically.
“What are they?”
“Chronicles of Narnia box set, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Deluxe box set, Anniversary edition Willow DVD and-”
“Escapist crap. Can you never get her anything with some educational value?”
“Books and DVDs Timmy. It’s not like I got her a bong. Jesus. Let the kid have some imagination.”
“If Mom and Dad had stressed academics more, maybe I’d have a better job.”
“Oh c’mon, Tim. If they had stressed anything you would have crumbled. Claire is a bright kid. She can do robotics without actually being a robot.”
“Yeah, well her birthday is in two months and I’d prefer if you didn’t show up with books about magic.”
Gil looked at Tim.
“You got it, little brother,” and he walked back out to his car one hundred percent certain he was getting his niece a dog.
***
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Brilliantly succinct