“Three times is more than enough times to make an impression.” Good, bad, mentally damning… a combination of all of them. Who could say? It was funny, growing up, the subway seemed so… mystifying to him. He couldn’t really understand why. Probably because it was one of those things that he had to “age” into being able to use. But when he finally was able to go on it, Dante quickly realized that it just wasn’t for him. To say nothing of the lizard people of Los Angeles. Maybe that was a big part of it.
“At least a shrink would get paid to listen,” he remarked with a hefty amount of sarcasm. “But other than that… yeah, plenty of people might need to just… keep it brief, of keep it to themselves.”
“You weren’t the only one falling out of trees at eleven,” Dante shared. “Although palm trees are notoriously difficult to climb.” And, really, at eleven, Alex was alive. Having spent so much time as the “only” kid of his generation, Dante took to the role of being the kind of cousin who could make a good role model with an abnormal amount of gusto. So it was both being the kind of person who could show the younger boy how to do something that looked hard… or making the decision to not do it, because it was kind of stupid. Now? He’d probably just resist the urge. But at eleven? He climbed the tree. Well… he tried to climb the tree. “I might be able to fix a TV, if it comes to it. Maybe.”
“You can round up, Marcus,” Dante advised. “I do it all the time.” Except with his age. With 30 creeping ever closer. That… was something he wasn’t looking forward to. A part of him wondered how Marisa felt. Actually, he remembered. It didn’t go well. But, at the same time, she turned 30 and had a kid who was in high school and learning to drive. That really must have been surreal for his mother.
He listened to Marcus talk about his job and could tell that there was passion there. “It’s… like… your calling, maybe?” Perhaps not the best word, but the word that seemed like it made the most sense. “It might not be everything a person thinks that the perfect job should be. That job where everything just falls into place. But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right job for you. And, really, if a job doesn’t offer some sort of challenge, probably not the best job anyway.” Granted, Marcus’s occupation offered challenges that were a little more hazardous than most…
“A legacy…” he wasn’t surprised. In fact, Dante was impressed. It did put him in the position where he mentally wondered what it would be like if he had done the same thing as Marcus… followed in his mother’s footsteps. In terms of occupation, obviously. Except… she never really had a career trajectory. It was kind of on him to start the family thinking about things like that. No pressure. None at all. Okay, just a little bit. “That sounds like something worth going after. I hope you get there.” And he meant that.