My little boy is having difficulties
- Slocum's son is having a difficult time in school, particularly in his gym, math, and public speaking classes. He wants no enemies, dislikes disagreements, and loathes competition.
- Son is also having difficulties at home with his sister, his mom, and his father, and Slocum fears he is starting to let him down. Uh oh.
- Slocum's son especially fears Forgione, the short, barrel-chested gym instructor who tries to be helpful and encouraging but merely succeeds in frightening him further.
- Slocum confronts Forgione, who claims that his son does not have a good competitive spirit and lacks a true will to win. Slocum thinks he probably gets this from himself. Yeah, probably.
- Slocum also fears that his son is beginning to keep things from him, and he wants his son to confide in him like he used to.
- Slocum's son may be crumpling to pieces at age nine and turning into a frenzy of melancholy anguish. Slocum has a feeling that something's going to happen to his son, but says he doesn't care what happens as long as it doesn't happen soon.
- Slocum compares his own fears at work to the fears of his son, concluding that at least his son's fears are real.
- Slocum's son worries all the time, perhaps even more than Slocum, and expects the worst to happen.
- The only person in the family who hesitates first before stepping into his father's study, little Slocum does not have anything to talk about.
- Slocum's wife worries that he may grow up to be homosexual, though Slocum does not find any reason to suspect that he will.
- Slocum observes that people tend to grow up pretty much the same way they began, and hidden inside every man and woman is a little boy or girl who once was and will always remain lonely.
- Slocum's son fears abandonment, suffocation, and crowds, and he does not trust people he has not known long.
- Back to the conversation with Forgione the gym teacher. Forgione's main complaint about Slocum's son is that he is not competitive and does not want to beat anyone. Slocum is secretly amused, but Forgione wants him to learn that in life he has to be better than somebody else.
- The two agree to allow the boy to sit out for a few days to gain his confidence back. They promise not to tell him that they spoke. Slocum feels he has lost, even though he has won his point too easily.
- Slocum has a minor panic attack and hopes he never loses control of himself in anything, or that he never has a stroke or a heart attack, or drops dead suddenly like his father and brother.
- Back to Slocum's fears: every day that he and his son are still alive is a miracle. He doesn't trust cars or people who are driving. He isn't so much worried about his wife and daughter, because he no longer cares for them like he does for his boy and himself.
- Slocum's son comes home and says he doesn't have to participate in gym anymore until he wants to. He enjoys being on the outskirts of the activities and feels he ought to be envied.
- However, son soon decides he does not want to be different; he wants to be the same as everyone else in the normal group. Make up your mind, kid.
- Son then starts applying himself, and in no time, the other kids want him on their teams.
- Inevitably, though, as soon as things begin to work out for the kid, he goes back to worrying again, fails to perform well, and his team loses because of him.
- Slocum feels sorry for his son. But don't worry. He says he'll manage.
- Derek doesn't know what's happening to him, or that his parents do not want him to be different. Huh?
- Slocum's son doesn't like Derek's nurse, because he thinks she uses him to make his parents feel bad.
- Slocum's wife mentions that she could devote her whole life to taking care of Derek, but Slocum merely laughs at the thought.
- The two discuss the option of sending Derek away, though both know the other is not serious.
- Mr. and Mrs. then go upstairs and have sex, and Slocum talks more about his affairs and how his wife should be honored to learn he thinks of her when he is with other women. #blessed
- Slocum returns to talking about his son's fears that his father won't return from conventions when he goes away.
- Slocum's son also doesn't much care for Derek. Slocum comforts the boy by saying that sometimes we often have to live with things we don't like. Such as Slocum does each day at his job.
- Slocum is happy he's able to talk so freely with his son. He enjoys their Socratic dialogues and loathes the arguments he has with his daughter.
- Slocum wishes he had a second chance to be young and make sure his children were happy and satisfied.
- Slocum then recalls how he and his wife used to brag about their son's curiosity, and now he marvels about how he can predict Slocum's snarky remarks almost verbatim.
- Slocum's son used to give coins away because he was feeling generous, Slocum made him stop because it was not his money to give away.
- One summer vacation, Slocum's boy was having a difficult time in the play group with the other kids. He wonders what he and his wife ever did to their children to make them believe they would never be able to make friends.
- Slocum's son is knocked down by another boy and doesn't even retaliate, much to Slocum's horror. He was afraid to fight, Slocum realizes.
- So many of Slocum's son's misfortunes come from bad timing, like when Slocum was running late one day to pick up his son and found him standing alone on the sidewalk crying aloud and thinking that he had been abandoned.
- Slocum thinks about divorcing his wife, but he could never go through with it.
- Back to the summer camp. Slocum encourages his son to take a walk along the amusement pier at the beach. His son does so hesitantly, and Slocum hopes he can go from place to place without having something terrible happen to him.
- Of course, Slocum's son gets lost standing by himself on the shore about two hundred yards away from where Slocum is with his wife on the beach, and he's unsure of which direction to proceed.
- Slocum wants to kill his son for his incompetence and helplessness, and the boy's unsure why his father is upset with him.
- Slocum laments a bit more over his life, over how he never became what he wanted to be, and over how he is just content with his two cars and two color TV sets.
- Slocum confesses again that he has this constant fear that something is going to happen to his son, and there are times when he wishes everyone he knew would die and release him from the tensions he experiences. Death apparently runs in his family, he claims.
- Slocum concludes by saying that he lives with four people of whom he is afraid. Three of the four are afraid of him. One member of the family is not afraid of any of the others, and that is Derek.