The Counter Surprise

    The visitors saw the lights pull into the driveway. They could not be seen. The only sound was the buzzing of the house electronics around. The dark cold night chilled the house. Carl got out of his car and with a hop to his step jogged to the big red front door. His long overcoat was buttoned all the way up and his briefcase seemed to be frozen shut. He jingled his keys to the front door unaware of his unsuspected guests waiting to get him. He quickly opened the door, slammed it shut, and tossed his briefcase on the floor. He clapped on his lights and a fierce “Surprise” exploded throughout the house and rang through his ears. Carl jumped back against the door and covered his face as if Mike Tyson was about to light him up. The room then erupted with laughter at his reaction. Carl smiled and yelled out, “Oh God, I thought I was dead meat!”
    “Happy Birthday Dad!” exclaimed his son Max, as he snapped a party hat on top of his head. He stood there without a shirt with what he calls them his “totally ripped abs” and a pink flowery bathing suit on. Carl smiled and gave him a manly hug. “If only mom were here to see your face.”
            Carl looked puzzled and said, “Where is she?”
            “She told me…to tell you…that your real birthday starts when everyone is out of the house.”
             Carl just stared at Max with jaw half way down for a good ten seconds while Max looked with a smile saying that he knew what was going down tonight. Max broke the silence, “So you want me to get everyone out?”
            “No, not yet she can wait a while…where ever she may be. But why wouldn’t she just come and celebrate with us. I’ll never understand women.” Carl let out a slight sigh of disappointment and continued, “I guess I’ll just celebrate with my friends for now.”
            “Alright have a good one, I’ll be in hot tub with your secretary,” Carl gave him the fatherly look, “uh…discussing business,” Carl with the same glare, “I’m interested in your job, you never know when I may have to step in at the Firm.”
            Carl turned away and started to mingle with his co-workers, fellow YMCA members, and dads of Max’s friends. He tried to stay away from his wife’s yoga club as much as possible. He doesn’t understand why someone needs to bend like that. His boss, big Italian Johnny, with his half glass of scotch, came up and started to talk about work.
            “Carlton! Why didn’t you display any evidence at the Robinson Case today!”
            Carl looked up to him and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I just thought that-”
            Johnny laughed and said, “I’m just pullin’ your tail kiddo. It’s a wonderful party.” Carl nodded and Johnny continued, “Do you remember what I said to you  after your first big case…the one with…uh…Charles…Schniedenwhatever?”
            “Yeah, I remember I lost. I had every piece of evidence and everything seemed to be going my way. I knew I had won going into that last day. I even celebrated with my family. But then they found a blood stain and it was all over,” Carl paused to collect his thoughts, “You said ‘You must learn to follow before you can lead, let this be a lesson to you’. I followed that advice from there after and I started to do more research and work later and I did whatever I could do to win my next case and every one after that.”
            “Yes, precisely, and after five years, I know that you have become a great example for the rest of the men and I would like to make you the Head Attorney.”
Carl looked astonished and couldn’t get his mouth to say anything, so he just hugged him. This wasn’t so manly but Johnny accepted it and said, “I’ll take that as a ‘Yes’ but don’t get so emotional.” as he shook off Carl arms which barely fit around him.
           ”Yes sir, sorry sir, thank you so much for this opportunity, I will not let you down,” as he shook his hand rapidly up and down.
“Well good, that’s what I wanna hear. But it’s one thing to say it. The next two weeks are going to be very busy. You’re gonna have at least three big cases and you need to nail these to show how badly you want this job.”
“Honest sir, I’ll be there. I’ll accept every one and go three for three.”
“Well I certainly hope so. Now if you will please excuse me I see some Pizza Rolls.”
“Alright, thanks again sir, this is the best birthday present ever! I just wish my wife was here to hear it.”
            Johnny turned around and shook a finger at Carl saying, “I don’t know, don’t be so sure, I was talking to Macho Maxy over there and I hear you have quite the present coming your way.”
            Carl blushed and could only imagine. Johnny turned around, raised his glass of scotch and pronounced, “A toast to my new Head Attorney, Carl Wantal!” The room raised their glasses and yelled with excitement. Carl could see his son walking across the Persian rug in his wet trunks and dripping all over the floor. The yoga club seems to be interested in the man but Carl just wanted a towel for him.

            “Dad, I heard the news. That’s great! So do I get a raise on my allowance now?”
            “Of course!”
            “REALLY?”
            “No…you already are taking my secretary…and you’re in college now.”
            “Yeah but I’d rather have the money. And it won’t be long until I’ll be an attorney. I’ve got an A in all my classes and I’ve won all of my situational cases in school.”
            “You know Max, a great man once told me, ‘You must learn to follow before you can lead’.”
            Max replied sarcastically, “Wow, that’s deep. Sounds like some big Italian guy said that.”
            “You know you’d be surprised if just sat back and watched, it’s not as easy as you think, especially when you’re up against a mean judge and ugly attorneys staring you down.”
            “Alright pops, I’ll keep that in mind. But shouldn’t you be gettin’ drunk or something, I mean i’s yo birfday!” Max thought his dad would like his un-whiteman side. 
            “I think your enjoying my birfday too much. And I don’t want you goin’ to anymore campus parties.”
            Max only smiled and walked off not caring about the puddle of water sinking into the carpet. For the rest of the night Carl did have a few drinks and before you knew it he was playing Wii sports in his man yoga pants. Guess where he got them. But he wasn’t drunk. Carl was not the man that got very crazy. He ate some snacks with his co-workers who stayed to around 10:15. After the house was empty of people he needed to clean up the half-filled cups of margarita mix and Diet Pepsi along with the Chex Mix crumbs stomped onto the floor. He walked around to try and find Max and after searching a few rooms decided to look for Victoria, his secretary instead. He went out the back sliding door onto the patio where the hot tub was and saw his son sitting in it. He also then found his secretary and wouldn’t you know it she was hiding under his arm the whole time. “Max, get out of the hot tub. Victoria …I’ll see ya tomorrow.” Carl seemed calm about the issue and didn’t want anything to ruin his day. Victoria got out put some respectable clothes on in front of his boss, gave him a good night hug and drove home. Max got dried off and put some clothes on so he wouldn’t make his dad look so out of shape. They started cleaning the house and filling up all the trash cans in the house so they could be lazy and not go outside and freeze their butt off.
            Max started some conversation, “Do you want me to clean the rest of this up so you can, uh…go see mom.”
            “I don’t even where she is. Is she here?”
            “Oh yeah, I forgot to say, well I didn’t forget, I just wasn’t supposed to tell you, that she’s upstairs in the bedroom. She said she needed to prepare for, well she didn’t say what for but I’m guessing that it’s…none of my business.”
    “Thanks Max. Why don’t you get some sleep and I’ll finish this up tomorrow.”
    “Alright dad. See you in the morn and have a good night.”
    Carl gave him a mysterious smile and started to head for his bedroom upstairs. He walked down the dark hallway to the room at the end which had multi-colored lights coming from underneath the door. He hesitated then opened the door. What he saw was magnificent! Yellow, red and green lights were shining around the room, with a eight foot blow up palm tree in one corner, tiki lamps on the desks and dressers, and there was his wife, Jan, standing in front of the closet with a Hawaiian skirt and tight Hawaiian muscle shirt. The Hawaiian music was softly playing in the back round. Jan started off,                           “So what do you think?”
    “Is this my present?”
    “No, I only wanted you to get used to it.”
    “You mean-”
    “Yes, Carl, you, me and two weeks of Hawaiian relaxation laying on the white beach, staying up late, and doing things unimaginable at this house.”
    Carl’s stomach dropped through the floor and started to force a smile. Yes, of course he would love to go to Hawaii but he couldn’t. “Did you hear I got a promotion at work,” Jan looked very surprised, “I got promoted to Head Attorney.”
    “Carl that’s great! When do you start at your new position?”
    “Monday.”
    Jan looked at him with a blank face and stuttered, “S-so you’re coming to Hawaii with me right?”
    “Jan, I’m sorry.”
    “Look, you can either choose to go to work and be bored all day or come to Hawaii with me and have the best time of your life. And trust me it WILL be amazing.”
    Carl looked away from Jan to think. “Look, I may regret this decision later, but I can’t just give up this job the first day I get it. Johnny is counting on me to win three big cases coming up.” Jan’s eyes started to water. “I’ll always love you and at any other time I wouldn’t even hesitate to go but at this moment I just can’t do it.”
    Jan buried her face in her hands. With all her work she put into this surprise, she couldn’t bare to look at Carl. She then ran into the bathroom and shut the door violently. Carl wasn’t sure if he made the right choice or not. All he knew was that he was going to work on Monday. He sat down on the bed and let a big sigh out, unknowing of what he should do next.