Life With Lenny

By B.L.Cunningham

Once the furor over being nominated for two Oscars subsided, life continued  fairly normally for Lenny and Laverne, Laverne was out on a mission to find the perfect gown for the awards ceremony just two months off, and Lenny  continued to work from home on various  commercial jingles, including a long standing contract with Cheshire Cat  Food that featured Lenny doing the  voice-over  for Howard the kitten, the animated star of the commercials, a tough taslking, pugnacious gray & white kitten who sounded exactly like a kitten imitating Humphrey Bogart"I'm Howard the kitten and  I'm here  to say, there better be some Cheshire cat food in my dish today... 'cause if there isn't... I'm gonna  slash 'em, I'm gonna trash 'em.. I'm gonna slash 'em into widdle pieces !" Unfortunately, Howard's climbing ability worked just fine but he'd often find himself out on a limb or  high up a phone pole with no idea how to climb down  and his tag line was "Ohh,
I think I'm
stuck !" at which point someone would rescue Howard from his perilous situation murmuring "Oh Howard !" Lenny had left his  music room in search of a snack when he passed by his daughter's room and found a tearful  looking Linny  sitting on the edge of her bed "Hey pumpkin, I didn't hear  you  come in.. hey what's wrong?  somthin' happen at school?"
At once, Lenny's protective mechanism went into overdrive, anything that caused his wife or daughter unhappiness or distress immediately had his undivided attention and he waited as Linny sniffled, not wanting to cry in front of her father "We were having a Discussion Group in class  today.. about the jobs our parents  do, and I  was telling the class about  you  doing the voice overs for Howard the kitten... and some of the kids laughed and one girl said I was.. I was a liar !" Lenny's  jaw clenched in anger. but he forced himself to remain calm.  Linny threw herself into Lenny's  arms and sobbed " I don't care if they call me a  Brainiac or a  geek.. but I'm not a liar !" 
Lenny hugged his child, and rocked her gently "I know that Lavinia and you know that and your mother knows that and that should be all that matters, unfortunately there's some gold plated assholes out there  who haven't gotten the message !"  Linny giggled at that.
"Your Mom and me, we got the best, the brightest, most beautiful kid in the whole world, and the comments from some nasty little turd hasn't changed that one bit, you'd better believe that"

Softly, Lenny began to sing "Nothing's going  to harm you,not while I'm around; nothing's gonna harm you no sir;  not while I'm around
Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays; I'll send send them howling, I got ways
No one's  gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare, others can desert you, not to worry, whistle and I'll be there
Not to worry, not to worry 
I may not be smart but I ain't dumb
I can  do it.. put me  to it
show me something I can overcome" Linny chimed in "Just whistle and I'll be there"
When Laverne first heard Lenny singing that song as a lullaby to his newborn daughter, she was reduced to tears. Lenny did not have  the greatest singing voice but  the words invoked the deepest feelings a man could have for his child.When Lenny saw the tears on Laverne's face  he joked "My voice is that bad?" Laverne just shook her head and said "You're  gonna  be the  best daddy this world has ever seen, don't ever doubt it "

TBC
THE END









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