“HOW MUCH DO THEY TAKE OUTTA YOUR CHECK?” Gabby said as she stormed into my office.
“Hi Gab,” I said as I turned away from my computer to see her studying the piece of paper in her hand.
“How much?” She asked without looking up.
“A SHAHIT LOAD!” I said, laughing at how upset she was about finally recognizing her role as a working taxpaying host.
“It’s not funny. This isn’t fair,” she said.
“It’s the redistribution of wealth… America’s charter,” I added.
“WHOSE WEALTH! I’M A COLLEGE KID WORKING TWO JOBS AT THE MALL, NOT SOME OLD BUSINESS OWNER GUY!”
“Don’t call me old!” I said looking over my glasses…like an old business owner guy.
WHERE’S IT ALL GOING? WHY DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT?”
“You do. Vote!” I said.
“FOR WHO?”
“WHOM.”
“I can’t even talk to you sometimes,” she said angrily, storming out of my office. “I’m going to work out.”
It’s funny how kids with the same gene pool can be so different. Gabby’s a type A personality. Rigid. Intense. Vulcan-like, yet funny…and a little combative. Unlike her brother Joe, her “gray area” is a pencil thin line between black and white. I understand her personality as she IS the proverbial nut that fell from my family tree.
I appreciate her frustration from taxation with no apparent representation. I had the same questions when I first realized I was a voiceless stationary target, supposedly fraught with success-guilt from cashing my government-calculated paycheck. I have often thought there should be full disclosure on W4 forms, detailing how tax dollars are redistributed. Maybe a pie chart in appropriate colors; green for environmental dollars, blue for the military, yellow for infrastructure, and appropriate shades of gray for everything else that denotes an oppressive sweaty taxing body pressed uncomfortably behind us with both hands fumbling in our front pockets.
Continue reading “Old Fashioned Snowball Fight”
