The Jones’, or Happiness is Some Other Family’s Vacation

Mom, Dad, Brother and Little Sister climbed into the subway simultaneously. Somehow all four of them fit through the doorway at the same time- not that they were fat, its just unusual to see four people step onto the subway at the same time no matter their size. As they enter their eyes scann the car and they look for seats, but there are none and so they merge into the crowd of standing passengers. Mom and Dad hold onto a silver handrail, and Brother and Little Sister grab onto pant legs and shirttails. Brother’s shoes are the kind that lit up when he took a step, and Sister has a little pink backpack. I smile as they huddle together. Mom is cautious, Dad is stalwart and protective. He wears a strong, thick brown mustache and baggy cargo shorts. He somehow looks disproportionately more attractive than his wife- she is bookish and has thin windblown hair. They are tall, white, probably Midwestern. Their children are small, round-faced, most definitely adopted. I imagine the days and weeks and months the couple anguished over not being able to have children on their own, and then I imagine all the signitures that had to be signed on all the papers to adopt Yuqing and Zhang Le, who are now probably called Stephanie and Jason. Mom and Dad might’ve even gone all the way to China or Mongolia or Butan to pick them up, and I feel bad for not knowing the differences between the physical features of east asian children. Dad does a great job of making up for his impotence by acting protective and strong and by paying lots of attention to the kids. He is a good dad, but not necessarily a good father, and while mom is happy most of the time she secretly resents him for the Sunday mornings he spends watching the Packers instead of going to church. She doesnt mind that he doesnt make as much money as they need, and she knew he wasnt that smart ever since that day she met him in Math class at college and he asked if he could get the answer to problem #2. By the end of the semester they were sweethearts and in the Fall he had bought a ring and they moved into special housing for married couples. It was a tiny two room place made of concrete block with small windows, green carpet and a big metal door with three latch locks. They had a charcoal grill outside on the smooth, cold concrete slab sidewalk. She would smoke on that sidewalk when he wasnt around and then do her best to hide the butts. She thought that they’d have kids right after graduation. Who knew that hers would be made so many years later in China. But they were good kids, and they do their best to behave on the subway, until Stephanie starts climbing the hand rail, that is. They’d planned this vacation for months and were having such a good time and Dad promised Jason that they’d visit the Air and Space Museum. So, once at the Smithsonian stop they all grab hands and leave the train in the same way as they boarded.