One day, my mother asked my dad, “Why haven’t you spent time with your son?” My dad said, “I never have the time to. I work all day from 6am to 5pm. When I get off work, I get something to eat, go home, take a shower, and go to sleep. That’s my routine every day except Sundays.” My mom said, “Look David, I know you work hard all day and be tired when you get home, but I need for you to spend more time with your son. Your son is about to be five years old going into Kindergarten and you need to spend time with him before he grows up on you. He is growing up so fast and I don’t want you missing out being a part of his life.” “Alright Lesha, I will try to make time in the week to spend time with him,” said my dad.

Two days later, my dad decides he was going to get off work at 12pm today. My dad works as a mechanic for the Downtown Houston Fire Department, so I know he’s always busy. He drove from his job to my school to come pick me up early. My elementary school was a very tall and wide peachy-white building that had a huge parking lot full of cars and bicycles. The building seems as though it was a high school with a church built within it.

Getting called to the office over the school speaker saying my dad has come to pick me up early from school today was a confusing moment for me, because I would’ve never thought I would hear the people in the office say my dad has come to pick me up from school. Maybe it’s because I was used to hearing the office people say my mom. Who Knows?

Arriving at the office, seeing my dad wait for me was still a big surprise. My dad, African American, standing at about 6 feet tall, has freckles on his face, a ripped body, a tapper fade haircut, wearing long navy blue jean shorts, a red shirt that has the Houston Texans Logo, white socks, and red and white Jordan’s, saw me and said, “Let’s go son. I have a surprise for you today.” I was like, “really?” “Yes,” he said. Leaving out the building, getting into my dad’s Silver Mercedes, I asked my dad what’s the surprise. He said,” you’re just going to have to wait and see.” I was so excited for the surprise that I had this huge smile on my face; looked as though I was an airhead ready to explode.
On the Highway heading towards somewhere I wasn’t familiar with, I ask my dad, “Where are we? Are we almost there?” “Be patient my son” he said. I said, “Ok!” Five minutes later, I went to sleep. Next thing, I heard was, “WAKE UP SON. WE’RE HERE.” I got up immediately and looked around and saw I-Hop. My dad asked me, “Do you want to go see the movie X-Men today at the Magic Theater?” I was like “sure.” I did not know what X-Men were until after the movie.

It was a hot sunny day outside at 2pm and it seemed as though the ground was sparkling everywhere when my dad and I got out the car. The Magic Theater looked taller and wider than my school on the outside. I thought I would never see the day that something else was bigger than my school. Walking into the building, through the glass doors, I noticed that there were many things that amazed my eyes. Everything was huge. It seemed as though it was like the story: “Jack and the Beanstalk.” I was small compared to everything around me. I saw this I big circular ticket stand, huge posters of new movies that was coming soon and movies that were now playing, arcade games such as: Marvel vs. Capcom and Jurassic Park, glass doors that went into another room full of clothes, the food stand, and a huge popcorn bucket full of fake popcorn hovering above everyone in the Magic Theater. The popcorn bucket seemed as though it was a supersize me thing from McDonalds. From the looks of it, it seemed as though we were at Deerbrook Mall, but I wasn’t for sure though.

When my dad got our tickets to go see X-Men, we rushed over to the food stand, because no one was in line. My dad asked me what I wanted to drink and I said soda. This was obvious, because all they had was soda and water. I really wanted that Magic Theater crunch candy, but my dad said no and got it for himself and bought me popcorn.

The movie theater rooms were to the right and left sides of the Magic Theater, but it shown on our ticket that we needed to go to the left side. On our way to the X-Men movie theater room, I saw darkness in the direction we were heading towards and I was kind of nervous of going in the dark. The man that was taking our tickets in order for us to go in to see the movie had a scary looking face and said good luck to me. It was official. I was scared after that. I busted out crying not wanting to go into the movie theatre, but my dad said, “Stop that crying right now. Big boys don’t cry.” I sucked up my tears, I have my soda in my hands, and my dad right by my side to protect me.

As we went inside the dark hallway, I started to see some light and hear sounds of the movie trailers. I looked at the crowd and seen a lot of people pack up the theater. It seemed as though there were no more seats were available. Fortunately, we found the perfect two seats in the middle section of the crowd. The picture of the screen was ultra-big with its massive surround sound. I never heard or seen anything amazing like this before. As the movie is getting ready to start and my dad and I are getting settled into our seats, I say to my dad, “Dad, I have to go pee.” My dad said, “Are you serious? You didn’t have to go when we was outside?” “Nope,” I said. My dad said, “Just great,” and took me to the restroom.

On my way to the restroom outside the movie theater, I spotted a $100 dollar bill on the ground, and said, “Hey dad, look what I found.” My dad was amazed with a shocking look on his face. Then he just snatched the money from me quickly, and told me to shhhh (be quiet)! “We can’t say that out loud or people are going to come after us. Its finders, keepers,” he said. I was thinking in my head, “Well since you said finders, keepers; that are supposed to be my money then. But I did not want to say that, because I probably was going to say it out loud.
After that situation, my dad continued to take me to the restroom which was to the right of the food stand, so we could hurry back to the movie. Once I was done peeing in the most cleanest white restroom I’ve ever been in, my dad and I rushed back over to the movie theater, untilled I had tripped over my foot, landed on my face and busted my lip. I started to cry again. My dad picked me up and took me back to the restroom to clean me up and said, “Stop all that crying. Big boys do not cry. You need to suck it and get over it.” I immediately stopped crying; walk out the restroom with no tears on my face, and went back to the X-Men movie theater room slowly.

Arriving back at the theater, we look up at the screen and see that the movie hasn’t even started yet. “Wow all that rushing for nothing,” I said. We returned to our seats in the middle row and settled back down. As soon as we sat down, we seen the ticket cartoon man’s rules pop up on the screen; letting everyone in the movie theater know what not to do when the movie starts, such as: Do not be on your cell phones, make sure cell phone is either off or on silent, and make sure there are no babies in the theatre to cause a disruption for others around you. Once all the rules were solid and clear, the movie begun.

Once the movie was over, my me and my dad got up from our seats, made sure we had everything that belonged to us, then we both left the X-Men movie theater room with happy faces. “That movie was awesome,” my dad said. I said, “I know they have got to make a part two to that movie. That movie was really good.” On our way out the room, we had thrown away our trash and went to go pee again for the last time before we left the Magic Theater. After we got finished peeing, my dad and I left the Magic Theater, and went to the car.

As me and my dad gets settled into the car, my dad said, “I still cannot believe you found $100 dollars on the ground, and then busted your lip. Interesting day today,” he said. I said, “Yeah! Crazy!” “Well since you found the $100 dollar bill on the ground, I’ll let you choose what you want to eat tonight, and what you want to do two weeks from now,” my dad said. I was like “awesome. Tonight I want mom, Jaylin, me, and you to go to I-Hop and two weeks later I want to go to the Magic Theater again, so we can find another $100 dollar bill again, so I’ll be able to get what I want once more.” My dad said, “Ok son!” I was like “yay!” “I know I haven’t been there to spend time with you at home, but I will try my best to make time for you after, before, or even during work. I had a fun and interesting day with you son, and I hope you want forget all the times we will spend together later on in the future. I love you son. Also, don’t tell your mom what we did today or she’ll be mad, because I took you out of school early today,” said my dad. “Ok son!” I said, “Ok dad! I won’t and I love you too.”