Michael Pierce woke up early in the morning and went straight into the shower, his enthusiasm almost uncontainable. Today he was going to visit university campuses with his daughter Stephanie who had done excellently in high school and earned a full bursary from KPMG to study accounting. They had visited three colleges yesterday and the whole time Michael had done nothing but stand back and be impressed as his daughter chatted to students and student advisers about what to expect from university life. Stephanie was the second one to wake up, followed by her mother Jo-Ann, who draped on a gown and headed downstairs for her first cigarette.
The last one to wake up, as always, was Eric. He awoke at seven a.m., leaving himself only thirty minutes to get ready for school. He achieved this by quickly freshening up in the bathroom and having a cup of coffee that was three quarters milk so he could drink it immediately in one sip. His style of doing things grated on his parents, who, every time they tried to talk to him about taking things more seriously, were met with some clever remark that aggravated them further. They were running out of patience with him and were fast approaching the point of giving up on him, and for Eric that day couldn't come soon enough. He kept doing things his way, putting in the absolute minimum amount of effort, like the homework that he hurriedly stuffed into his bag, a book report that he had had two weeks to do that he had only done last night, about a book that he had made up by an author that he had made up.
The journey to school in the morning was usually made in silence, but on this morning, with Michael being so excited, Eric and Jo-Ann had to sit in the backseat and listen as he asked Stephanie one question after another.
"Have got everything you need for today?" "Are KPMG going to be e-mailing the bursary approval letter today?" "Do you have all the documents that you need in case you decide to register today?"
They were all questions that he already knew the answers to, his only reason for asking them was to once again confirm for himself that his daughter was going to university, a fact which Eric knew and which made listening to his father's questions all the more unbearable.
"Eric, Kate's going to be taking Jacqueline for her swimming lesson today, so she'll come and pick you up from school today," Michael said to his son when they arrived at his school. Michael was so focused on his day with his daughter that the alternate arrangements he'd made for Eric's transportation had slipped his mind, it was only now when it was time to leave him at school that he remembered.
"Okay," Eric said, exiting the car without saying goodbye.
With Eric having exited the car, Jo-Ann was left to endure her husband's excitement all alone. The atmosphere in the car bothered Jo-Ann for different reasons than it did her son. It all started a week earlier, when the topic of Stephanie's future came up for discussion in the living room. Jo-Ann, who hadn't finished high school, was marginalized from the outset as what was meant to be a family discussion was quickly monopolized by Michael, the authority in the house on education having been a teacher for twenty-five years. Every time Jo-Ann attempted to make the slightest contribution Michael would quickly shoot her down and leave her feeling deeply insulted. The final straw came when, after hours of listening to her husband go on and on about chartered accountants and their handsome salaries, she decided it was about time a different viewpoint be introduced to the discussion.
"Stephanie, it's important that you not only think about the money, remember this is something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, you need to make sure it's something you're truly passionate about it."
Unable to believe the incredibly fatuous nature of this comment, Michael set aside any consideration he had for his wife's feelings and wasted no time pouncing on her.
