The Arcade

Great…” Cosmo sighed. He looked around at his bedroom, then cast one more glance out the window. When he did, something immediately caught his attention: his father’s car. He hadn’t realized that his father was home. A big grin blossomed on Cosmo’s face, as he turned and bounded out of his room and down the stairs.

Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded the newel post, he could hear his father’s deep voice coming from the kitchen: “…so I thought I would take an early flight home and spend the rest of the week with you two. I was thinking maybe tonight we all go to dinner – and maybe take in a movie.”

Joseph Phillips – or Joe as everyone called him – was always smiling, cheerful, and absolutely loved his family. He especially liked spending time with Cosmo whenever he had the chance – and because of the nature of his career, that wasn’t always possible. Consequently, when he was not travelling he was engaging in as many family activities as possible – sometimes to the dismay of his family, who didn’t always have the energy he did.

“That sounds wonderful, sweetheart – but aren’t you worn out from the convention and the plane flight? Have you even slept?” Rosemary Phillips was a medium-height, slender stick of dynamite with dark auburn hair (which bordered on chestnut), who was devoted to her husband and her only child, fussing over both with equal care and concern. She was also the last person you would want to have angry with you - as several school teachers, salesmen, and one produce manager in particular discovered. She brooked no dishonesty, nor anything she perceived as injustice – toward her family or herself.

Joe gave her a big hug, smiled at her and replied “I’m just fine, sugar-bomb. I’ll get a great night’s sleep tonight, but this evening I want to have fun with my two favorite people. How’s that sound?”

Before Rosemary could reply, Cosmo wrapped himself around both of them and answered “That sounds great! When do we leave?”

Startled, Cosmo’s father put his arm around him and chuckled. “I hadn’t realized you were home, son – how’s my boy?”

Cosmo hugged his dad back and replied “Just great dad! Perfect! I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you!”

Joe shot a questioning look at Rosemary and said “Missed me, sport? I’ve only been gone three days…but that’s nice to hear. Truth is, I miss you two every time I leave the house for more than an hour.”

Cosmo looked up at his father and said “I’ve always wondered about that, dad.”

His father looked at him quizzically and replied “Well, I hope this puts all your fears to rest, son. You and your mom are all I think about, and who I live for. You should know that.” He looked into his wife’s bright green eyes and asked “So…how does Antonio’s sound? I’m feeling like a big plate of shrimp fettuccini tonight!”

In unison, both Rosemary and Cosmo shouted “Great!”

“Fantastic! Let’s all meet right back here in fifteen minutes. Last one here buys dessert!” With a giggle from Mrs. Phillips and a snort from Cosmo, everyone disappeared up the stairs.

Exactly ten minutes later, Cosmo was standing in the kitchen looking at his watch when first his mother, then his father, came thundering down the stairs, laughing like children themselves - pushing and shoving to be the first into the kitchen. As it turned out, Mr. Phillips was the last one into the kitchen. Seeing Rosemary with her arm draped over her son’s shoulder and both of them with triumphant expressions on their faces, he chuckled and held up both arms in a mock gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay – I’m buyin’ dessert. Just don’t stick it to the old man too bad, huh?”

Rosemary walked over to her husband and, rising up on her tip-toes, gave him a kiss on the tip of his nose. “We’ll have ice-cream, thank you.”

Joe smiled at her and replied “As you wish, my love.” Turning to Cosmo, he asked “So – what’s the movie? If I know my son, I’m guessing it’s the new Star Wars movie. Am I right?”

Before he even finished the sentence, his son was eagerly nodding his head in fervent agreement. “Yes! Absolutely! Awesome!” Cosmo gushed. “I’ll call for show times!”

Four hours later the trio walked through the front door, laughing and talking about how good the food was, and how great the movie was. “…And the part where Darth Vader grabbed the Emperor and tossed him over the side! I never saw that coming! That was AWESOME!!”

“Yes it was, dear.” Rosemary looked from her husband to her son. “Cosmo, what was your favorite part?”

He thought for a moment, then brightened as he replied “The part I thought was the most interesting was when Luke finally got to see his father’s face – under the mask, that is. You got to see the humanity in Anakin’s eyes. I thought that spoke well to the power of redemption.”

Cosmo’s mother and father gave each other a puzzled look, and it was his father who spoke first: “ ‘The power of redemption’, son? That’s a rather profound observation for you. Gave that a bit of thought, have you?”

Cosmo suddenly realized what he had just said and tried to recover. “Uh…well…that’s what I heard the guy behind us say to his friend. You know – in the lobby… after the movie was over.” He peered up at his father and grinned widely “What I really thought was how cool the Imperial Walkers were. Oh – and the Imperial Shuttle! The sound it made as it flew was wicked!”

“That’s your son,” smiled Rosemary to her husband “all technology and special effects! It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he follows in your footsteps and goes to work with you. Who knows – he might invent the next big thing to come out of there.”

Joe smiled at Cosmo. “Yeah, who knows. Maybe even come up with a portable computer you can take to school – whaddya think, sport?”

“What – me?? That’ll never happen. They’ll never get that small, dad – you know that.” Cosmo couldn’t tell his dad that in the next twenty-five years, that company would be the source of some of the most innovative technology the world would ever see, and change the way people thought about computers, communication, music…everything.

“Yeah, you may be right, son – but it never hurts to imagine, right?” Cosmo thought about that. He certainly never imagined this ever happening to him. Come to think of it, he had never even thought about working for the same company as his father. Hmm…

Later that night after everyone had turned in, Cosmo lay awake, thinking of the day’s events. He couldn’t believe that it had only been this morning when he had awoken as an adult in the year 2012, facing another day at a job he never really liked. Now here he was, lying in a bed he hadn’t seen in over twenty years, in a house he hadn’t seen in over ten, down the hall from people he hadn’t seen in at least five. In fact, his father passed away January of 2008. His mother joined him just last year – right before her 75th birthday.

He began to think about how much it hurt to lose them, and how much he missed them, when he again realized that here they were, in this house, right now…alive.

Cosmo looked back (ahead?) at his life, and how much more time he could have spent with his parents – how he could have made so much more of it count. All the missed opportunities to let them know how he felt – how much he loved them both.

There were a lot of things he could have done, could have said. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his parents – on the contrary, he adored them. It just seemed that he was always off in his own world with his friends, or that his father was off doing business-related stuff, neither of them realizing that his mother was the sun around which he and his father revolved.

It was her warmth and love that – like the sun’s gravitational field – kept them both spinning safely around her, in their own little orbits. It would be said later that, without her, Cosmo and his father would probably have spun off in opposite directions (Joe because of his career, and Cosmo because he was a teenage boy), and never have realized it.

As he lay there in his bed, Cosmo thought about what this second chance represented to him, to his family, his friends, and to his future. He was especially curious about that last one. He tried to wrap his head around how even the small act of asking Holly out was going to change things. He recalled how Sal had told him that it would not only change his future, but Holly’s as well. What did that mean? There were literally millions of ways that could work. It made his eyes heavy just thinking about that.

He would have to think about it some more tomorrow after a good night’s sleep. After all, so much had happened today, he scarcely had taken it all in. Tomorrow. He would be able to think more clearly about it tomorrow.

With that, he fell into a deep sleep, and dreamt – curiously enough – about mops and push-brooms.