The grandfather slammed the front door shut after irately agreeing to watch his grandson.
His grandson was already playing with his toy cars, and he hoped that he would not have to play
with him, something he had not done in a long time and did not plan on doing again so soon.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had played with anything. His childhood days were de-
cades behind him, and he did not wish to do something he once used to. As he came inside, his

grandson asked him to play with the toy cars.
      “No,” he said in a gruff tone, complaining under his breath. The grandfather shuffled over
to the old, yellow leather recliner and sat down, the chair angrily creaking much like himself
and his thoughts. It would be hours before he could go home and not have to supervise a child,

a child who was the opposite of him: joyful and curious. To the grandfather’s relief, his grand-
son had already gone to another room to play with his cars; he could settle in for a day of TV.

However, soon, the sound of the rolling wheels stopped and his grandson carefully approached
with a yellow toy car, its wheels detached. He asked his grandfather for his help. With a sigh, he
began to press the wheels back onto the axles of the car. When he finished fixing it, his grandson
reached for the car. But before the grandfather handed the toy back, his fingers rested upon the
indentations and features of the small car. It was very much like the model planes he had once
played with as a little boy. He stopped to observe the car and rolled it along the sloped surface
that the leather had made in the armrests. As he rolled the little car, he felt his shoulders relax,
and he concentrated on the rhythm of rolling the car back and forth on the recliner. Suddenly,
in his mind, his memories of moving model planes just like this broke through.
      When he stopped, he looked up and saw his grandson staring at him with astonishment.
His grandson asked if he would like to play with him, and, hesitating, he said, “Yes, but only
for a few minutes.” His grandson was overjoyed that he had agreed, seemingly oblivious to the
fact that his grandfather had promised him only a few minutes. He quickly ran to get the other
cars. As the cars rolled over to the grandfather one by one, he marveled at how each one was
unique, like the different models of planes he once had. Something about this thought made the
grandfather relax, but he wasn’t quite sure why. He put the yellow car in his pocket and felt his
stiffness fade as he rose from the recliner to sit on the carpet to play. He didn’t complain when a

stray car struck him under his foot. He didn’t say anything about the sounds of the wheels roll-
ing and cars squeaking. He just sat there playing with his grandson and his toy cars. Long after

those few minutes passed, the toy cars were still rolling.
      That afternoon, when the grandfather went to watch TV in the leather recliner, it didn’t
creak like it had that morning. The weight present in the morning vanished, and he regretted
slamming the door. He tried to watch TV, but his mind was still latched onto the morning of
play with his grandson. He turned the TV off, and, in the silence of the room, he thought about
his old model planes. When he had played with the cars, they brought something back to him
that he had not experienced for a long time. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he knew that

it had come to him only when he played with his planes. He closed his eyes and tried to remem-
ber them, but all that came to him were the bright colors and the rolling motion of the wheels.

With a gentle sigh, he opened his eyes to witness the sun that had been bright that morning
fading. He stood up from the leather recliner and prepared to leave his grandson for the day.
He gently remarked to him that he should enjoy his cars, which left his grandson beaming with
pride. Seeing this made the grandfather feel warm, and, right as he stepped out of the house, he
stopped to feel something in his pocket. It was the yellow toy car. He placed it on the floor and

rolled it back to his grandson, who was watching him from inside. It wasn’t long before that yel-
low toy car rolled by again, and he smiled.