The Grill

Too small

It was his own fault for waiting until the last minute to assemble the new grill. The picture on the box made the assembly seem like child’s play.

But Bryan hadn’t figured out all the screws, wingnuts, nuts, bolts, and washers that came with it. He hadn’t budgeted the time it took to read the instructions – mostly in Chinese script – before he screwed a bolt into the wingnut. Bryan was a “put it together and if it doesn’t go well, read the directions” guy.

There he sat, cross-legged on the living room floor with packaging, hardware, grill tops and bottom, handles, plastic, and the brill box strewn all over the place.

“How’s it going in here?” Missy asked as she popped her head into the living room.

“Could you get me something to drink, something that’ll knock me out before supper?” Bryan asked.

“That bad, huh?” she said. “Can’t do it before supper because you were planning to cook it on that thing.”

“Don’t remind me. It’s just when they number – or letter – the bolts with A and wingnuts with B and all the way up through M or N.”

“Can’t you just start at the beginning and work your way through the instructions?”

Bryan looked around his wife to the clock on the wall.

He grunted as he rose and stretched his arms up high.

“Two things,” Bryan said.

“What’s that?”

“One, looks like we’ll be eating out tonight. Round up the kids and we’ll be on our way.”

“Fair enough, and two?”

“This grill is worth every penny we paid for it.”

Missy smiled, knowing full well that he paid less for the grill than what he would pay for supper tonight.

Bryan got the grill together later that night, and then made a late night run to buy a pre-assembled grill with all the bells and whistles.

He had plans for the baby grill but he just didn’t know what they were yet. Or perhaps Bryan would start a collection of barbecue grills to go along with his expanding gun and fishing pole collection.

In any event, Missy would understand his need to have a spare grill…just in case.