The other shoe
By: Lei Jin
Tags: Stephen King, Love, Parenting

The other shoe

I’m not a big fan of Stephen King -mainly because of the genre, I don’t do horror, but I know he’s the best. But once many years ago I bought one of his books in a yard sale, one dollar for a big hardcover volume, who could resist? But then again I didn’t read it much, only one story, and it stayed with me for this many years. The story started with a college student returning to his school from home, he was angry with his mom, as many teens do. Then on the drive through the darkest night, he picked up a hitchhiker, a seemingly harmless one, or maybe he wasn’t in a clear state of mind because of the anger. The hitchhiker turned out to be a devil, it haunted him but didn’t kill him. The devil said he would kill the young man’s mom if he didn’t obey his command. I forgot what the command was, it was a pretty simple task he needed to do but in a very limited time. He did it, and his mom was ok, but he has to do it every day for the rest of his life, or something like that. So he’s always doing it to save his mom, and always checking if his mom was ok, and of course he’s never angry with his mom any more. His mom did live to old age and died peacefully of natural cause, only then there was a sign, and I forgot what it was, that showed the devil pulled a prank on him. It was never a real threat, his mom was never in danger, but wasn’t he glad he thought his mom was in danger? Wouldn’t you be glad that you thought your loved one would die any day and you cherished them like there was no tomorrow? Isn’t it true that we all could die any day, us and our loved ones?

I aways thought I was very lucky, I won the gene lottery, the parent lottery, the husband lottery, the kid lottery, I had everything I ever wanted. But I know this is not how fate works, good lucks are supposed to be balanced out by bad lucks, so I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop, the bad luck that would hit me like an eighteen wheeler rolling down a hill… In other words, I had met the devil in Stephen King’s story. Every day when I drop the kids at school, I always said: I love you baby! I know, I know, it’s a bit too much to teenagers, they don’t acknowledge at all, one even asked me to stop and I refused :) I know only the lucky kids get to take loving parents for granted, as I did when I was their age, and I want them to be as lucky as me. If God forbid anything happened, I want those to be our parting words. I can’t understand the parents who yell at the kids even at drop off, what could be that big a deal? What if the next school shooting were to happen? Or earthquake, or anything?

I see many people take their parents for granted, I hope that’s not what evolution intended, but many of us eventually come to reckon our own stupidity, hopefully not too late. I see even more people who take their kids for granted, unfortunately their stupidity could have long lasting impact and there’s not enough time in the world to make amends. Even Stephen King couldn’t write a horror story where a parent were to learn that his child was to die any day. Maybe he thought parents don’t need such a reminder, or do they?