In the New World

“What would you like for your birthday?” Sarah asked her so, Tommy, as they walked down Main Street, hand in hand.

“I won’t be having a birthday,” Tommy replied with a shrug as he admired his new shoes with their bright yellow laces and iridescent stars on the side.

“Why not?” Sarah asked, taken aback.

Tommy had been talking about his upcoming birthday for months; he’d drawn her about a dozen pictures of a big cake with cars on the top to make sure she understood his vision for the perfect birthday treat. “Make sure you put a big seven on it,” Tommy had said many times, always holding up seven fingers to emphasize the number he wanted, even though Sarah had been lovingly putting the age he was turning on his cake every year without error or fail since before he could count.

“I just won’t.” Tommy casually explained with another shrug. “The new world will be here by then. No one has birthdays in the new world.” Tommy's attention then turned from his shoes to the dazzling window display of a toy store they were passing.

Sarah smiled, amused and impressed by her son’s vivid imagination. “Ah! And what is this new world like?”
Tommy thought for a moment, “Like this one, but quieter.”

“Is this world too loud for you? We could get you headphones.” Sarah had often thought that the city was far too busy and noisy a place to raise a child, but it was the only place her husband could find work these days.

“Nope.” Tommy shook his head emphatically, “It’s not too loud at all.”

Sarah sighed with relief before smiling with a hint of mischievousness. She loved asking her son questions about his make-believe worlds, especially when she could make him think or joke with him a little, “Ok, but won’t you be sad without a birthday?”

Tommy looked perplexed for a moment, as if what his mother said was very dumb. “No one is ever sad anymore in the new world.”

“No one is sad anymore!?” Sarah said, raising her eyebrows playfully. “Well, doesn’t that sound nice!”

“I guess,” Tommy said with a shrug. He was glancing up at the sky now, and Sarah wondered if a bird or a plane might have now stolen his attention from the toy store.

“I should like to live in this ‘New world’ of yours,” Sarah said with a laugh. Her son really did have a vivid imagination.

Tommy turned and looked at his mother very soberly. “No one lives in the new world, Mom.” He said.

“Well then, where do they live?” Sarah asked, taken aback yet again.

Tommy was no longer looking at his mother; instead, he was looking intently up at a rapidly darkening sky. “They don’t.”